


Waters of the Tenerife (You're The Rays On The Waves That Calm My Mind)

by AlexandriaBo



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff and Smut, Liam Payne & Harry Styles Friendship, M/M, Merman Louis, Merman Niall, Mythical Beings & Creatures, No Zayn, OT4, Sexual Content, Village Boy Harry, implied sophiam, larry stylinson - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-12
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-08 23:40:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4325286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexandriaBo/pseuds/AlexandriaBo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry Styles loved the ocean more than anything when he was a child. That is, until  he nearly drowned. Now, he admires the beauty of the sea from afar, but when he witnesses the existence of a creature once thought to be nothing more than a myth, he'll find himself falling faster than a man for fool's gold, and the last thing he expects is for this sudden wave of love to leave him just as submerged as the one before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. - The Boy From The Sea

Waters of the Tenerife

Part I

\- Year 1816

Harry had lived along the Tenerife Sea his whole life, and since he was a child, he grew more and more infatuated with the beauty of its water. Although he thought it stunning and graceful, he feared its depths, the mighty waves that pounded the surface on stormy days and nights. Crystal blue and filled with life, Harry would much rather sit far from the pulsing shore and watch from afar.

The sky above him was littered with thick, pregnant clouds ready to burst with rain at any moment, but he refused to leave just yet. He enjoyed the breeze that came in from far off the coast. It brought a comfort with its coolness, ridding the island from the usual dense humidity that typically plagued it on any other ordinary day. The scent was fine and clung to Harry's skin, making him smell of cleanliness and salty sea air, an aroma he'd grown quite accustomed to since his childhood.

He was alone in his usual spot, sitting cross-legged at the peak of a small hill over a cliff on top of the water. From this high position he could see for miles, the islands several miles away from his, the playful dolphins congregating together, and even the darkened water of what was the oceans drop off. There, he'd always been told was where the sea started to become an almost otherworldly place. The bottom of the ocean floor could be seen from the surface of the water, but once ships and fishing boats crossed that ethereal line, nothing was known about what may dwell within its darkness.

Listening to the crash of the waves at the foundation of the cliff's wall, Harry pushed his fingers back through his lengthy auburn hair. It was long and fell in similar waves as the sea down his shoulders, inching further and further down his back as the years went on, having started to like the idea of having hair longer than most men. He let his eyes sweep the surface of the water, smiling to himself as a pair of dolphins spiritedly raced one another. Harry wished he wasn't so afraid of the ocean, because he truly admired its wonders, but with a scare from his youth still ever so fresh in his mind, stepping foot into it never failed to make his heart race with dread.

Harry rolled a small rock between his fingers, and then threw it as far as he could out over the ledge. He stood, watching it fly through the air and then plummet down into the water. As his eyes followed the stone, his gaze stopped suddenly on a spot at the surface when something caught his attention. Just below the water, Harry could see a dark mass moving about, and when it broke the surface, he could see that it, whatever it may be, was thrashing frantically. He rutted his brow in confusion and worry, thinking maybe a dolphin or large fish of sorts could have wound up tangled in a net left behind by fishermen. It wasn't an odd thing to discover a stray net here or there with fish, sea turtles, or even seals washed up on the beach with these nets twisted around them.

With his attention drawn on this movement, Harry watched as the waves pushed it closer and closer to the shoreline of the beach below the cliff. He stood from the grass of the hill, taking a careful gander over the edge and down to the beach below. He flinched abruptly, then, covering his ears as a crash of thunder rumbled through the sky. Water droplets began to pour from the thick, grey clouds blanketing the sky, dragging Harry's long curls down.

Quickly looking back at the water, he scanned the prickling surface for the wild movement. As he narrowed his eyes as to see better, he witnessed this...thing drag itself out of the water and onto the sandy coastline. Harry definitely would have fallen over the ledge if he tried any harder to get a better view from here, especially when he could have sworn he'd distinguishing a pair of arms assisting this creature heave itself further away from the water.

"What in God's name..." he said, his distant gaze able to catch a bizarre hint of lilac and sapphire.

Curiosity ate at Harry's mind when he determined that this...thing...took on a sort of human-like aspect.

Rain showered the land as Harry raced down the rocky trail leading from the cliff to the beach. His thoughts raced almost as fast as his legs at the possibility of what this thing could be, but he found even himself crazy for even considering it. The tales flowed through his village and everyone was well aware of the stories fishermen brought home with them, but since no one had ever truly witnessed what these men spoke of, the stories remained just that: stories.

At the bottom the pathway, Harry rushed around the wall of thick boulders sat within the sand. He stopped suddenly behind one, shielded by its lofty size and pressed his back up against it. By now, he was soaked from the rain, his clothing having grown heavy, and he had to keep pushing hair out of his eyes so he could see. Anxious and a little worried about what he could see once he peeked around the rock, Harry sucked in a chest of air and poked his head out.

"Oh, my," were his next words, brought on by the sight just three meters from his hidden spot.

Sat on the sand was a boy, but...not just any boy. Harry wasn't even sure if it was right to call it a boy. While it's upper half looked like any other human-being, having a full head of short brown hair, smooth, sun-bronzed skin, aside from its pointed ears, and sharp curved bone structure protruding from its elbow. But, what made Harry's jaw truly drop in awe, was the glistening tail that formed from where the boy's hips should have been. It was long, two meters in length, and had scales of gorgeous shades of blue, violet, and green, the end of the tail was wide with a gap curved into it, two extra smaller fins closer to the boy's torso.

Absent thought, Harry stepped fully out of his hiding spot, too mesmerized to think twice about bringing light to his advance. The boy was frustrated, tugging relentlessly at a net jumbled in a mess of knots around his tail. The more he pulled, though, trying to figure out the working of his trap, the more he tangled it around himself.

Harry, with disbelief draining out every thought, continued to approach the boy, scared but also too filled with wonder to stay away. This was what the fishermen talked about after their voyages, and Harry was less than a meter from one now.

He drew nearer, unseen by the boy because his back was to him.

Without making his presence known first, Harry stepped in front of the boy and reached for net.

Upon seeing the human, the boy gasped out in fear and released the net. He lifted his tail in a swift motion, slapping Harry and tried to scurry away, but because the net had become more and more fixed around his body, the boy could only drag his figure across the sand, slow and unsuccessful.

Harry stumbled from the hit and fell back on his bottom, but he remained unaffected by the startled reaction. He scurried back to his feet, and called out to the frightened boy, "Wait," he shouted, "Wait, I want to help you."

His plea had gone unheard, however, and the boy continued to try his best in getting away.

"Please, wait!" Harry said, grabbing at the net. His fingers curled into it, snagged when the boy thrashed his tail more and more. Harry held his other hand up, then, a signal for the boy to stop. "I want to help you, please, wait." His expression remained calm, concern and empathy clear in his jade green eyes. He shook his hair out of his eyes again, "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to get this bloody thing off."

It wasn't possible to tell if the boy could even understand a word coming out of Harry's mouth, which he doubted, but still, he hoped it was enough to get through to the boy.

Unable to move anymore as the net found its way around the boy's shoulder, it became utterly impossibly to even budge now, so Harry took his chance to help. As the boy lay there in the sand, chest rising and falling fast in heavy gasps of air, he watched fearful and inquiring as Harry tried his best to untangle the twists and knots from his long tail.

Pulling here and there, Harry glanced up into the boy's eyes. They were the most beautiful shade of blue, even more lovely than the shine the waters of the Tenerife took on during the sunniest of days. They were eerie in a way, fragile crystals in the stormy grey world that surrounded them. Harry's eyes wandered then to his chest, it had a small frame, fit with athletic purpose and just at his sharp collarbones lay what Harry could only relate to as gills. It shocked him at how human he could look but still hold the qualities of a peculiar sea creature.

Having unlatched the net from the boy's lower region, Harry calmly moved closer, on his knees as he sat beside the boy's upper body. Harry raised his hands as if gesturing peace and reached for the net again. He was able to rip a small section and unwrap it from the boy's right arm, and then he softly took hold of the boy's left arm, lifting it gently so he could unloop the net from around his shoulder.

Their eyes met for the second time and Harry offered a kind dimpled smile, but the boy quickly looked away and back out to sea, a place Harry was sure he couldn't wait to get back to.

Finally pulling the net fully off of the boy, Harry tossed it further up the beach and stepped back as to assure all he'd wanted was to help.

Once he was certain he was free, the boy dragged his body towards the water, relief seeming to hit him when the tide touched his webbed fingers. He crawled further out until his body was almost completely submerged, but, before he disappeared, he looked back at the human boy standing on the shore, rain relentlessly storming down on them both.

Harry raised a hand and waved subtly, fingers curling in a gracious goodbye.

The boy seemed confused by Harry's gesture, tilting his head in thought, and looked at his own hand, and then waved in kind before plunging into the sea water, letting the last sight be the beautiful colors of his vibrant tail.

Drenched from head to toe, Harry stood there for several minutes, awestruck by what had just occurred. Never in his lifetime would he have ever considered living through the opportunity of watching a myth come to life before his every eyes. He'd grown up knowing very well there were people in his village who strongly believed in a colony of human-like sea creatures that lived in the depths of the ocean, but being able to stand here and say that these things, these people, were real life beings, was surreal. A part of him wanted to remain skeptical about the hidden species just so they could remain a secret to the world, but the other was fascinated by the thought of knowing the truth.

Harry finally turned his back on the sea and started towards his village, sure his family was worried sick about him given the weather. Starting up the stone path away from the beach, he paused a moment to look back out at the water, wondering if he and the boy from the sea would ever meet again.


	2. - The Gift of Jewels

Waters of the Tenerife

Part II

 

Harry hadn't spoken to anyone about his experience when he got home last night. He thought it best to keep the encounter to himself in fear of being ridiculed for it. Truth be told, merfolk were a usual talk of the village, but no one would ever believe ol' Harry Styles and he knew that for a fact. His father had drove himself mad trying to prove for decades that the merfolk existed beyond the shore, but he was never able to cough up any real, conclusive evidence to back up his claims. He'd worn himself out so much that the man barely spoke anymore.

So, instead of speaking to his family about where he had gone on yesterday, Harry decided to entrust this bit of information with his closest, most loyal friend on the island. Liam. He and Harry had grown up together, living just a quarter mile from one another for years, always close enough to be able to reply on one another if ever a favor was needed, or a promise was needed to be kept.

Meeting Liam at the horses stable at his house, Harry found his friend cleaning the hooves of his pure black horse, Kyra. "You must have done something awfully terrible if your mother's got you tending to the hooves," Harry said.

Liam did not have to look up to tell who'd been speaking. Harry's voice was so drowned and monotone that anyone could point him out in a shouting crowd. "I was out late with Sophia again," he said, scraping the dirt and grime from an agitated Kyra. "Said if I let it happen again I'll be out of a place to stay. Honestly, I would do anything to get off this cursed island. Everyone born here is damned to stay for the rest of their lives." He set Kyra's hoof down and stood, standing at an equal height with Harry. "I don't want to be stuck here forever like everyone who came before us. I want to see London, Paris, even Rome."

Harry leaned lazily back against the stable wall, arms crossed, "You know it is not that simple to just pack everything and leave. What would you do for work? Where would you stay?"

"I have not thought that far ahead, mate. Just think the idea of disappearing with Sophia by my side would be something nice. Don't you want to see what else there is to the world?"

Harry probably would have complained right along with Liam...if his life here on the island wasn't so comfortable. He could admit that there was never much to it, but this was his home, where his family had settled many years ago to start a new life. His bloodline stretched overseas to England's mainland, but ventured out here for whatever reason. Harry could see why anyone else would develop a yearning to travel, leave, and never return, but that mindset didn't belong to him. "London would be nice, I suppose," Harry said anyway.

"See," Liam patted his friend's shoulder roughly, "Everyone wants to see at least one place in the mainlands." As he cleaned his knife, now, Liam dipped the sharp blade in a bucket of murky water, and rubbing it shiny with the hem of his shirt. "What'd you stop by for, mate? Looking for a nice chat?"

"Yes, actually," Harry admitted, "I wanted to talk to you about something that happened to me yesterday?"

Liam raised a brow in suspicion, "Those bastards from up the road aren't harassing you again, are they? Do I have to put my foot down again and teach 'em a lesson?"

"No," Harry assured, "They haven't spoken to me since you set them straight the first time. Won't even look me in the eye when I go to the market. What I wanted to talk to you about...was...was something I saw out in the Tenerife. You have to promise you won't mock me when I say this, though. You're the only person I feel like I can trust with this. You're the only person I think I'll ever be able to trust with something like this."

"Hurry up with it, then," Liam said. He took Kyra by the reigns and guided her into the stable before taking them off, Harry following behind. When Liam had the horse locked away in her stall, the two boys climbed the railing and sat atop it. "Did you finally see a mermaid in the water or something?"

Harry said nothing for a moment.

Liam gave his friend a baffled look and chuckled a bit, "Harry, be serious."

"This is my serious face."

Hopping off the rail while Harry remained seated, Liam said, "You saw a mermaid..."

"If we are to be respectful in terms of gender, I actually laid eyes on a merman. He was washed up on the beach, trapped in a stray net. I helped him out of it."

"You helped it?"

"Yes," Harry's tone became more excited as he spoke. "And it was absolutely incredible. Something in me was telling me to stay away from him, but I was so entranced by what I was witnessing, that I couldn't control myself. His tail was so long and beautifully spellbinding, seeming painted by colors only crafted from the sea. I feel like if I already hadn't a great fear of the ocean, I would have happily followed him into the waves."

Liam appeared to genuinely listen to Harry, not an ounce of doubt or question in him. "Like a siren, you mean?"

"Yet..." Harry paused after a nod, "...he had no voice, spoke no words to me, but just the captivating spectacle was enough to make me want to."

"Must have been a sight."

"You believe me?" Harry asked, desperately not wanting to seem like a lunatic in front of his only friend.

Liam stroked a hand down Kyra's snout when she nudged his shoulder. "If there is anyone on this island I would trust wholeheartedly about the merfolk, it would be you, Harry. You're definitely not one to fabricate lies just for the sake of a good story. I believe you. What did it look like?"

Harry's eye lit with enthusiasm as he went on, assurance restored completely now that he knew Liam wasn't looking at him like everyone else looked at his father. "His tail was a mixture of purples, greens, and blues, and his upper held his chest. Looked like any other human's, but he had these small gills just under his neck. I couldn't form the correct words when describing his eyes, but they were the most soothing and serene shade of blue I have ever seen, hair like silk strands of brown, and his hands were strange, webbed, sort of like ours but greenish in between and with much more skin."

"And you said he did not speak?" Liam asked.

"No, but he did nearly scream when he saw me. Knocked me down with a whip of his tail."

"At least you can tell it wasn't love at first sight on his part."

"Love?" Harry scoffed, "Don't be ridiculous."

Liam gave Harry a look of questioning, "One does not speak so humbly about someone if they are not entirely infatuated with them, and, you, my friend, are horribly enamored with him."

Harry tried to discount his friend's words, but couldn't quite get around them without finding a small source of truth. He was captivated with the sea creature, so much, that he had to fight the urge this morning to race down to the beach and sit there, waiting, no matter how long it took, to get even a glimpse of the boy again. "Do you think it is possible that he might come back? The merfolk are supposed to be terrified of us, and he was when I had come near yesterday, but when we parted ways, I feel like he saw just a small portion of trust in me. After all, I did help him get back to the water. I'm sure if he'd been caught in that net any longer, or was stumbled upon by anyone else, he would be dead."

"You did the guy a good deed," Liam said, "Besides, if their kind have even the slightest ability to feel grateful, I'm sure he wouldn't be too bothered by the idea of thanking you. Well, however their kind show appreciation, I mean. Or, Harry, you never know, that could have been the last time you and anyone will ever see him. You have to remember, he belongs in the sea."

"I know," Harry sighed. "If only I wasn't so afraid of the water, I would go out, just a little, to see him again."

When Liam opened his mouth to add something, he was cut off when his mother appeared in the open doorway of the stables. "Oh, hello, Harry," Mrs. Payne greeted. "How are you, sweetie?"

"I am well," he smiled.

Mrs. Payne then looked toward her son, "Liam, go the market for me, will you?"

Liam gave Harry a nod, "I'll see you around, mate," and then he whispered. "Don't let the merman lead you to your doom."

Harry left the Payne residence, then, and started on the path home. He wasn't far from the stone house when the temptations in his thoughts took over, and they proved too convincing to simply head home. Instead, he turned his back and headed east toward the coast.

The clouds from the day before weren't quite gone, still shrouding the sky in grey lures of rain, but still, everything remained dry for the time being. Harry's boots sunk into the sand when he reached the shore, stepping on patches of seaweed and shells that found themselves stuck on land. He looked out on the water, but the surface was untouched by anything other than the wind pushing waves onto the sand. For a moment he considered himself a fool for thinking there was even the slightest possibility that the boy from the sea could appear again.

Merfolk were supposed to prefer a life of secrecy instead of making themselves completely known to humans, so Harry wouldn't be surprised if he had to wait his whole life just to see another one. As he stood at the water, boots barely touched by the foam that the tide left behind, Harry winced when he felt something small and hard strike his thigh. He looked down quickly to find what it was. Nearly lost within a bundle of seaweed, Harry spotted something no bigger than a coin. He picked it out of the wet plant and looked it over. Perfectly round and see through, Harry turned over a gorgeous jewel in his hand. It was a deep green, much like his own eyes, and reminded him of the treasures sought after by greedy pirates.

Harry turned quickly when he heard something else hit the sand just a few inches beside him, and there sat another jewel, this one a similar size but now was a deep red in color. Picking it up as well, he rolled the stunning gemstones in his hand, and the moment he looked back out at the sparkling blue water, scanning toward a high angular rock formation that stuck out of the water, Harry saw the boy dive from the top of it and back into the water, leaving behind a giant splash upon impact with the water.

"Wait!" Harry called after him, "Don't go!" but his plea remained unheard.

There was nothing he wanted more right now than to see him again, up close, and without the add fear that had come between them the evening before. Harry wanted to truly see this boy, know him as no human had ever known a creature from the sea. Though dreaded by what else inhabited it, like sharks and other deadly animals, Harry wanted to know the beauty of the sea as through the eyes of someone who lived in it. But, here he stood, alone again on the beach without a choice but the stay where he was.

"Come back," he said under his breath. "Please, come back."


	3. - The Growth of Friendship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Just so you all know, when Louis is depicted as speaking, it is in a language of his own, one Harry would not be able to understand if spoken to. Pretty much, Louis understands English, but does not speak it, and the words he says are just in English to "translate" into the story. Hope that made sense. Enjoy the story! :)

Waters of the Tenerife

Part III

After supper the very next day, Harry excused himself from the table and left for the beach. He'd spent most of the day helping his mother in her new vegetable garden, and then his father repair the hen house out back, but now that he was finally finished with such chores, it was the perfect time to set out. Once evening time came around, his family usually assumed he was out with Liam, so he never had to worry about being missed. He descended the hill far away from the village and stopped when he could see the ocean skyline. Finally, the weather was clearing up and the clouds from the days before had gone from the atmosphere. The world around him seemed to shine with blue radiance, much like the perfect shade that had shone with charm the day before.

One thing Harry appreciated about this part of the island, was that no one ever inhabited this area. Given most of the fishing companies and docks were either up towards the north or down south, and import ships came in from the west, it left the eastern part of the island virtually untouched by anyone else, making it Harry's own little sanctuary. And, now that he had something worth keeping a secret from the rest of the island, he was even more grateful that everyone decided to steer clear from here.

Strolling to the water, Harry took a seat and pulled his knees to his chest. The sun shined down on him, and he unbuttoned his shirt just a little to relieve the heat. Several minutes passed with only the typical splashes of play among lively dolphins. He smiled at their flips and racing, shortly wondering if the merfolk ever took on such play with spirited animals like the dolphins.

Harry dug in the pockets of his trousers a moment later and withdrew the gifts he'd been given yesterday. He placed the red and green rubies in the sand in front of him. When he was about to scoop them back up, his eyes darted to the water when he heard a strident splash much closer than the dolphins had made a minute ago.

There, just a couple meters from where he sat, was the boy from the sea. The bottom half of his body was still submerged, but the fin of his flamboyant tail continued to sway almost with a mind of its own, much like a cat's when they remained still for a period of time. The boy's face was just as beautiful, if not more, in the rays of the sun than it had been in the dullness of the days before. The fine edges of his cheeks were brought out more sharply, the curves of his body more define. There was a bag-like clutch strapped around his shoulder, made of seashells and what looked like a pearl necklace. He smiled kindly at Harry and waved, becoming accustomed to the sweet gesture.

Harry's heart nearly burst with excitement, and his eyes lit up. "I'm surprised you keep coming back," he said, still not even sure if the boy could understand a word coming out of his mouth.

The boy pointed towards the rubies Harry had set in the sand.

"Oh, yes!" Harry nodded, "They're very nice. Thank you."

Digging into his pouch, the boy took out something else from it. He held out a handful of what looked to Harry like tiny diamonds, coins, and a golden locket necklace. At the sight of the expensive items, Harry's throat dried a little. Where was he getting all of these costly things? Could he have access to an actual treasure chest sunken and lost under the sea? If so, Harry wouldn't be surprised that he hadn't any idea just how valuable these things were, but he did want to know why he thought Harry wanted them.

The boy inched closer to Harry on the sand, his tail dragging a trail behind him and set the treasures beside the rubies he'd brought the other day. Pointing out the necklace, he motioned as for Harry to put it on.

Curious first, Harry took the locket into his hands and opened it. Inside was a loose pearl. He put in on after and that seemed to please the boy from the sea, as if the acceptance of his gifts is what made him happy. Harry let the gold dangle against his chest, and then said, "I don't know if you can, but can you understand me?"

The boy nodded immediately.

"You can!?" Harry exclaimed. "Do you – do you speak?"

Touching insecure fingers to his lips, the boy then shook his head, indicating a surefire no.

Harry sighed in disappointment, wanting to hear what his voice would sound like. "How did you pick up on the language?" Harry asked, then.

The boy waved a hand out towards the water behind him, signing almost perfecting in a manner Harry could understand, that clearly meant he'd learned to understand English from sailors that frequented the seas, but that he did not know how to form such words.

"My name is Harry," he properly introduced himself, "Just so you know. I wish I could know yours if you have one."

He was given a nod this time, and the boy began to scribble something into the sand. Louis.

"Luis?" Harry pronounced, "Or is it like the French Louie?"

The boy nodded to the second.

"Louis," Harry approved, "It's a very beautiful name."

When the heat started to become too much for Harry, he unlaced his boots and pulled them off, placing them in the sand beside him. The boy's eyes moved toward Harry's feet, then, appearing to gain a strange interest in how they looked. Laughing at the way the boy leaned in close to them, Harry wiggled his toes, throwing his head back in delight when he was given a bizarre look. "Feet aren't very nice-looking, are they?" he said.

The boy scrunched his cute little nose, shaking his head, and then sat back on his hands, waving the colorful splendor of his tailfin back and forth, showing it off. When it settled beside Harry, he raised a hand as to touch it, and said, "May I?"

Once the boy nodded, Harry softly dragged a tender touch down the slippery bluish lilac scales. It almost felt like glass at his fingertips, and he noticed how they seemed to fade into a greenish haze when the light hit it in a certain way. Tracing his hand up towards the boy's waistline, Harry paused when he spotted a jagged scarring. It was long healed but had taken the pretty coloring of the scales with it. Running his thumb over it, Harry asked, "Did something hurt you here?"

He received a nod in response and the boy formed a triangle with his hands. The head of a spear came to Harry's mind, and he winced at how much it must have hurt. The boy's expression was replaced by a look of gloom, but he shook the sorrow away and began to drag himself back into the water. When he was waist deep again, he gestured as for Harry to follow him.

"I..." Harry sighed, "I can't swim."

The boy thought a moment. Boat, he tried to explain with his hands, you can use a boat.

"I haven't got one," Harry moped, and then he thought, looking over the coins given to him by the boy. "Wait, I could purchase a small one with these. I'll bring it tomorrow."

A smile spread prettily across the face of the boy and he nodded in understanding. Swimming back out, he stopped for a second to wave goodbye before disappearing into the waves.

Harry stood alone at the water, his heart pounding with glee and infatuation. Liam had been partly correct about his allegation yesterday. Although Harry was sure he wasn't in love with the boy from the sea, there was an inevitable amount of interest and adoration for him. He wanted to explore these next days with him, spend almost every waking moment with him, all while keeping the boy all to himself. Harry didn't want to claim him by any means, but he knew if anyone else showed up at this beach, the boy might never come back out of fear of being hunted, and Harry feared for that possibility as well.

Heading back to the village, Harry ran all the way to Liam's house. He was outside, shirtless and sweaty, chopping firewood and piling it along the wall of the stable. Catching sight of his friend beforehand, Liam said, "Well, look who it is! The boy who cried merman." When Harry came closer, Liam squinted his eyes and pointed to the locket around Harry's neck. "Where'd you get that? Is he bringing you presents?"

Harry dug the other gems and coins he'd been given out of his trouser pockets, showing them off to his best mate. "He's given me all of these."

"Holy..." Liam drove his axe into the stump, and said, "Do you know how much all of that is worth?"

Harry picked up a single coin, and said, "I'm going to use this to buy a boat."

Liam scoffed, "One gold coin will buy you a boat, but all of these rubies and diamonds and gold will buy you a fast boat to the mainlands, a house once you get there, and just about anything else to start a living."

"Here," Harry said, giving Liam the other four gold coins he'd been given and two of the reflective diamonds, "have these. If he gives me more, I'll split it with you, so you and Sophia can finally get off this island."

Liam was dumbfounded, "You would do that for me?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Harry smiled, "You're my best mate, Liam. I just want you to be happy, and if running away with the girl of your dreams is what'll make you happy, then I'll help you in any way I can. Just promise you won't ever tell anyone about me and him. Just the thought of what could happen if anyone else finds him scares me."

"I promise, I won't say a word," Liam swore. "Thank you, Harry."

_

As Louis continued further and further out to sea, he twirled beneath the waves, happiness forever lighting up his face as he swam out to his home. He spun within a school of fish before catching up with three dolphins. Holding onto one, he let it escort him towards the caverns in which he lived with the many other merfolk. Harry's angelic façade occupied his thoughts, everything from the mere sound of his wonderfully strange voice, to the long curls in his hair. He'd come into contact with humans before, and not all had been so pleasant as this human boy. This human was different, however, much more compassionate than any other. Just from the rescuing events of their first meeting, he knew that the human boy's heart was something charitable, even fragile, and something to be protected, and he wanted to do just that...if only he wasn't trapped in the confines of the ocean.

Clinging to the sturdy fin of the dolphin, the boy couldn't fight his crinkly eyed smile, but when he finally came upon the coral reef caverns deep beyond the drop off, he tried to do his best to conceal it. The moon's reflection lit the underwater city, coral passageways, and trenches carved into mountains that had formed at the bottom of the sea. In the center of it all was a massive sunken ship. Single glowing jelly fish of all colors acted as lights floating near the floor, in and around the shipwreck.

Merfolk were out and about while others were tucked in their homes. Releasing the dolphin, Louis was stopped by an angry, blonde, red-tailed boy. His name was Niall and had always been a little too overprotective of Louis since they were small. "You went back to the surface again, didn't you?" he voiced.

Louis swam around him, "None of that is any of your concern, Niall."

Following after Louis, the red-tail cut him off before he could enter a broken, circular window into the ship that was where he slept. "The last time you showed yourself to a human, they nearly killed you," Niall argued, "You're an idiot if you think this human wants anything other than your life. They are all the same no matter what you may think of them now."

Again, Louis tried to get around Niall, ignoring his quarrel, and when he couldn't, a black and white, leopard moray eel struck out at the red-tail, hissing forbiddingly at him. When Niall flinched and backed away, Louis stroked a hand down the eel and finally slipped through window. "I can take care of myself, Niall. Besides, he is not the like the rest."

When Louis disappeared from view, Niall glared in his direction, and then looked up to the distant moon swaying at the surface of the water. Looks like he might have to handle this himself.


	4. - The Feeling You Give

Waters of the Tenerife

Part IV

At the boating docks today with Liam, Harry had asked for his friend's help in picking out and hauling a rowboat. There was a workshop up near the northern part of the island that built lifeboats for larger ships, and Harry planned on snagging one for himself. There were boats of all sizes, some big enough to hold a full load of people and cargo, while others were just big enough for two. Liam knocked at the base of a small white one leaned up against the outside wall of the shop. It had two seating platforms in it and came with a set of oars and a rope. "This one'll do, yeh?" Liam asked. "Any bigger and I won't be able to help you carry it."

Harry agreed and purchased the boat with the gold coin he'd been given from Louis. He couldn't wait to get back to the beach to see Louis again. After yesterday, he was confident his friendship with the merman was going to grow into something new, something refreshing.

With the boat lugged upside down on their shoulders, Harry led the way from the docks and onto stone path back toward the east. The island wasn't as big as the others further out in the oceans, so it didn't take more than thirty minutes to travel through the active village.

As they continued on, Harry adjusted the weight of the rowboat on his shoulders, and said, "You haven't told Sophia about your plan to steal her from the island, have you?"

"Heaven's no," Liam said, nearly tripping over a small displaced brick in the path. "Telling her now would make her wonder where I'm getting the money for it. And, if she pesters me on where I get 'em, the questioning would lead to you, and then ultimately lead to your new fish friend."

"Oh," Harry hummed in understanding, "I didn't consider that. Good, don't tell her, then. At least, not while you two are still here."

"What are you going to use this boat for, anyways?" Liam asked. "Clearly you're going to put it to use in the water, but where are you going? Is he going to take you to see where he's from? Remember, mate, you can't swim for you're going to have to be extra careful on the water. I don't need you almost dying on me again. You know how scary that was the first time."

Starting far away from the stone pathway, the boys headed down into the sand, half a mile more and they'd be at the beach. "I don't plan on getting in the water, Liam," Harry said, "I don't think I will ever be comfortable enough to actually do something like that. I only feel okay with the boat because it's designed to keep me out of the water."

"What if he convinces you to get in?"

"I don't think he'd pressure me into doing something I don't want to," Harry admitted.

"So long as you always come back home at the end of your secret visits with this fish boy," Liam said. "I still find it so unusual that you are so passionate about something that almost took your life. God, I can still remember the day your sister Gemma had to be the one to jump in and heave you out. Just be careful, okay?"

Harry saw flashes of that dreadful day in his mind, the moment his nine-year-old self plunged deep below the crushing waves. He could still remember how the salty water filled his lungs, and clogged his tight airway, making him choke and scratch for the surface he couldn't reach. He would give anything to forget it all so he could love the ocean just as much as he had when he was younger. Now, he was contaminated with terror at the thought of simply stepping knee deep in a body of water. "I promise, I'll be cautious," he said to comfort his friend.

Finally down at the beach, the boy placed it down at the edge of the water. Liam stared out at the sea, then, trying to spot anything at all. When he couldn't, he nudged Harry, and said, "You sure you're not just talking to yourself out here?"

Harry huffed, "No, now if you don't mind..."

Liam laughed and rustled Harry's floppy curls, "I'm only fooling. Remember, be careful, please."

"I will."

A couple minutes after Liam disappeared over the sandy dunes, Harry continued to sit alone on the beach. He took off his boots again and buried his toes in the soft, damp sand. As he pondered his feet, he wondered momentarily how on earth merfolk came about. In a way, they were far too alike to not have originated from similar backgrounds. With their facial features having a corresponding take, Harry thought it possible for their species to have branched off somewhere down the line.

If something like that was possible, he'd have taken their route any day. To be able to explore the marvels of the ocean was a dream he could only...well...dream. He wanted to see the world beneath the surface the way Louis did, travel inside it, find what beauties were still undiscovered my mankind. Harry just knew the ocean was chock full of them.

A moment later, Harry stood when he saw a colorful blur approaching from a distance. Not far out, Louis broke the surface with a smile. Today he was wearing something that looked quite nice. Draped around his shoulders and dangling on his chest was a necklace-type piece of jewelry. It was white and gold, seeming crafted from the pearls and gems he always seemed eager to give away. And today, just like the ones before, he came bearing gifts. From the sea fashioned bag around his body, Louis took out a fistful of coins and emeralds and beckoned Harry closer.

The curly-haired boy neared Louis, gratefully accepting the sparking presents. "Thank you, Louis," Harry said, "These are very pretty."

Louis made a circular hand motion around his own face before pointing at Harry's.

"I'm pretty?" the human boy asked.

When Louis nodded feverishly, Harry's cheeks flushed a warm hint of cherry pink. He wanted to say he thought the merman was a lot more than just pretty, but the words were trapped in his throat. Instead, he pocketed what he'd been given, and said, "Now that I have a boat, I can get in the water with you."

Louis swam out and waved Harry on.

The curly boy got behind the boat and pushed as strongly as he could. He struggled getting it through the wet sand, but once it was far enough, it bobbed atop the gentle tide. He hopped into the boat, then, and his heartbeat picked up, half scared and half excited to be doing what he was. Louis grabbed onto the rope tied to the front and pulled as he swam, steering the boat toward a blind spot that could only be seen from the top of the cliff Harry had been upon the other day. Here, they were totally out of sight from anyone if someone just so happened to venture to the beach on this part of the island.

Releasing the rope, Louis swam under the boat and Harry peered over to see into the water. With it so crystal clear, Harry could see the bottom perfectly, the stunning coral reef and colorful fish that thrived around it. All his life he'd been appreciative of just how gorgeous the sea truly was, but being able to see a portion of it this close again brought true gratitude to his being.

He locked eyes with Louis as the merman remained under and placed his hand just at the top of the water. Louis stared up at the unsteady picture of Harry looking down on him. He reached his own hand up slowly, meeting Harry's halfway, palms separated by a line of salt water.

As their hands lay pressed together, Harry felt a minor shiver course throughout his body, one he was completely unfamiliar with. He wanted to describe it, put a name to the sensitive stream inside, but it was so novel and unforeseen that he wasn't sure if there even was a way to put it into words.

Louis tried to close his hand around Harry's, but the slight webbing between his fingers made it nearly impossible. He rose up out of the water, then, and Harry kept with his blue eyes, almost hypnotized by how ideal they were to him.

"I wish I could stay with you," Harry confessed without fret or disgrace.

Louis patted two fingers over the center of his chest, as if saying, "I wish you could, too."

"I'm sorry I'm so afraid of the water," Harry apologized, "I almost drowned when I was younger, so I haven't been in since I was a child."

Louis shook his head and tapped the boarder of the boat with his hands.

"You want me to stay in here?" Harry asked.

Offering a nod, Louis raised a tender hand as to touch the boy in front of him. As his fingers hovered beside Harry's rosy cheek, the curly boy's eyes drifted closed, waiting patiently to feel the soft brush glide down his face. As Louis' fingers delicately pushed back into his droopy locks, Harry gasped in thorough shock when he felt a pair of smooth lips press carefully against his.

Upon hearing Harry's stunned intake, Louis flinched away, tearing his unforeseen kiss and rushed back into the water.

Harry touched two fingers to his lips and then quickly turned around. Louis had raced quite a distance across water, and was now seated on a platform of solid rock. "Louis!" Harry called out, "Louis, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

The merman paid him no mind and kept his eyes out at sea.

Putting the oars of the rowboat to use, Harry stuck the oars into their locks and pushed out toward Louis. Of course, he had not expected to be kissed by the boy so suddenly, but he wished his could have altered his reaction to the display of affection. Louis' lips had been soft as velvet, and left a salty sweet aftertaste on Harry's mouth.

Rowing out to the platform, Harry tied the rope of the boat to a jagged rock sticking high up out of it before getting out. "Louis," he said again, approaching the merman from behind, "I'm sorry, you just...it's not that I didn't like the kiss, you just...caught me off guard, is all." Taking a seat beside Louis, Harry dipped his feet into the water but the boy continued to refuse meeting his green eyes.

Taking it upon himself, Harry placed his hand on Louis' and leaned in towards him. His nose brushed Louis' jawline, pecking a mild kiss to his moist skin, tasting the same aftermath as before. When Louis still refused him, Harry took to his knees on the rock and turned Louis' face to look at him. The gaze in Louis' blue eyes was foreign to Harry, filled with something he wanted to understand. He drew nearer and kissed the boy from the sea again, feeling a spark of...something erupt in the center of his chest. It traveled all throughout his body and he began to crave his new sentiment the longer Louis' lips lay pressed to him.

He backed off for only a second before going back for more, and this time his lips parted ever so slightly, his tongue stealing a taste of the boy's tongue. Harry lied back on the rock when Louis' push brought him down. This was all just as new to him as it was for Harry, but somehow it all felt so right. His vibrant tail swayed behind him as he came down over the curly boy. He motioned again with his hand, telling Harry he was pretty and smiled kindly before kissing him anew.


	5. - The Fear That Follows Love

Waters of the Tenerife

Part V

Watching from a safe, concealed distance, Niall kept an eye on the shore. He was in disgust seeing Louis as he was, wrapped in the arms a human boy, lips pressed together in a heated moment of passion. His lip snarled in repulsion as a blanket of scorn came over his entire being. He believed there was nothing different from this human and the rest. Niall looked toward all two legged, land walkers as vicious, selfish, and imprudent creatures whose purpose was only to take and take and take. He still remembered the first time he and Louis were attacked by air breathers that'd spotted them below the water. Every little detail from that day was etched in his head, the blood, the screams, and pain inflicted on Louis. The scar at Louis' hip was caused gruesomely by a spear that'd been chucked at them both. Louis had shoved Niall out of its path only to have it strike his own lower half. That day, Niall had to help the boy back to their underwater home before they both fell victim to the cruel human nature of man.

Never did Niall want to bear witness to something like that again, and there Louis was...putting himself in harm's way...yet again.

"Stupid, stupid, boy," Niall thought to himself.

Behind the boulder he was near, Niall started at the sharp call of Nerine, one of the most playful dolphins in all of the sea. Her call frightened Niall and he submerged back into the water. The friendly fish swam circles around him, squealing its laughter about. "Quiet, you raucous girl!" Niall commanded.

Though her words were nothing more than high pitched wails of elation, Niall understood everything that came out of her chirping mouth, and she was asking why he was spying on Louis from afar.

"It's none of your business, Nerine, now go before you reveal my place of hiding."

Louis had heard the strident call of Nerine from where he was and tore his kiss from Harry. He glanced over his shoulder out at the water, ever watchful of the surface. The dolphin wasn't fully understood from this distance, but she'd sounded happy enough. "What is it?" Harry asked, his fingers softly turning Louis' attention back him.

The two had spent so much time kissing this passed hour that Harry's lips were a shade brighter than they'd been before, an appealing, glossy blossom pink. Louis looked down into Harry's glinting green eyes, wanting to voice just how beautiful he thought the boy was, but still couldn't quite getting a feel for the off language spoken on land. Instead, he went in for another kiss, but stopped once again when he heard Nerine's clamorous voice. Looking back out, he spotted a splash in the water beyond an elevated boulder. He held a finger up to Harry, a motion as if saying, "I will be right back."

Louis slipped off the rock they were upon and dropped into the saltwater. He swam out, weaving through small clusters of fish and high grown stocks of seaweed. Coming to the rock, Louis peered around it to find Nerine dancing around the red-tailed blond. "Niall!" Louis belted out, "Did you follow me here?"

The red-tail glared darkly at the cheerful dolphin, and then looked back toward Louis. "I just wanted to make sure you were staying out of danger. Well, you're already in the arms of it, I see..."

"You should not have come here, Niall," Louis disputed, "Harry is not a danger to me like you think. I already told you, he's different."

"Forgive me for not wanting my friend to end up on the front of a ship like those shipmen fantasize about. You've seen their crude carving of our kind on the front of their boats. What makes you think that couldn't happen to one of us, to you? You're always so trusting and rapt of those air breathers, that one day you're going to fall into the arms of one that'll rip you from below and showcase the death you could have avoided if only you knew your place!"

Louis shoved Niall when the blond got in his face, and said, "My place is wherever I so choose to be at the time. You need to learn how to mind your own!"

"If you think I am senseless and bothersome now, maybe you should have minded your own when that fisherman tried to make a trophy out of me last year."

Feeling as though he may begin to boil, Louis simply turned his back on Niall, and said, "Maybe I should have."

Leaving the blond red-tail to himself, Louis traveled back to where he'd come from, to the rock before the cliff where Harry waited patiently for him.

Niall watched as Louis swam further and further, feeling like the reasoning in his friend was as washed up as he might soon be. Nerine nudged Niall's shoulder, her pitched tone speaking of concern for the animosity spewing between him and Louis. Niall brushed the top of her head softly, a stream of bubbled spouting from her blow hole. "Don't worry, girl," he said, "I'll give him a reason to never come back to this place soon enough."

Returning to Harry, Louis resurfaced, able to hide his discouraged from the words spoken by Niall a moment ago. He smirked up at the human boy as he popped up on the rock where they were seated before. "What was that all about?" Harry asked, fingers playing at the jewelry around Louis' shoulders.

Louis shook his head, an endearing glaze in his blue eyes.

After a minute, Harry looked out at the sky, spotting storm clouds making their way to the island. They were quite a distance still, so wouldn't be here till nightfall. He stood beside Louis on the rock and stepped back into the boat. "Could...could you take me out further? Though I fear it, I miss the sea a great deal. It is nice to see it even from a boat."

Louis nodded, untying the rope from the rock.

Harry remained seated as the boy pulled him along. He leaned against the edge, fingers dipped an inch into the water. There'd been a time when Harry would gladly lie atop the drifting waves, comfortable as the sun shone cordially down on him. When Louis felt he'd taken Harry far enough, nothing but ocean surrounding them, he neared the boat and emerged.

For a minute, Harry looked lost as he peered into the clear water, in a daze of grief as the ripples in the waves reflected in his eyes. With fallen curls curtained before his face, Louis reached up and pushed them back. The human boy seemed unaffected by the gesture, trapped inside a fog of thoughts swirled through his head. "What I wouldn't give," he said, then, "to swim as you do, to love the sea the way I once did."

Louis found the words of regret as common as the ones that passed his own mind a time ago. Though the sea was his home, and he cherished every inch of the world beneath the surface, he wanted to walk as humans could, twirl, and dance, and run, even fall down the way they could. While humans had the ability to learn how to swim and thrive off the ocean, Louis hadn't a method of doing the same. He couldn't one day turn his tail into a pair of legs and experience the world above water, and while Harry was saddened by his permanent fear of it, there was a chance that sometime in the future he'd overcome that dread.

Across the water, Louis walked his finger in Harry's line of sight. The curly boy quirked a brow at the act and met Louis' gaze. "You want to walk?" Harry asked.

Louis nodded, droplets from his soaked hair trickling down to his sharp collar bones.

"Land is not as gracious as you may think," Harry admitted. "There is such unpleasant brutality in this world that is pains me to be a part of it sometimes. If you were a human boy, Louis, and others of our kind discovered our innocent fondness for one another, they would not hesitate to rid us of our lives. And it would only be because we are both boys. I don't know what it's like in your world, but in mine, two boys cannot have any sort of affection for one another without death likely following close behind. I'm scared that my life here will be a short one."

Taking Harry's hand, Louis closed it in his own and hugged the soft embrace against his chest.

"You may think you are missing out on something where I'm from," Harry said, "But, trust me, you are better off here."

Hours went by and soon the sky was dark with storm clouds, thunder rattled the earth, and a light shower of rain cried down from above. Louis swam beside Harry as he rowed the boat back to shore, towing it onto the sand after. Standing at the ocean's edge, Harry blew a kiss out to the boy and was on his way home. His everlasting smile remained all the way, not once disappearing from his lips even after entering the village. He made his way to Liam's house, and knocked on the wooden door.

Liam answered, not seeming surprised in the least to see his friend on the other side. "Let me guess, the fish boy kissed you today and begged you to join his underwater kingdom?"

Shaking the rain from his hair, Harry stepped into the house. Liam was home alone at the time, his family having stepped out a couple minutes ago to have dinner with another. Dropping into a chair in the living area, Harry said, "You have the first answer correct."

If Liam's eyes had to ability to pop out of their sockets, they definitely would have after hearing Harry's confession. "Are you serious?" he asked. "You kissed the merman?"

"We actually spent quite a bit of time at it. Sometimes I forgot I needed to breathe."

Liam snickered in disbelief, "Must be a damn good kisser then to have Harry Styles wrapped around his finger. I just hope you don't resort to...sex next. I mean, does the guy even have a-."

"Liam!" Harry cut him off, "Don't talk like that. Of course, we're not going to do that. Besides, a relationship can thrive even without the act of intercourse. And I am fine with it."

"How dreary..." Liam droned, "But, on a serious note, although I do find this little thing you have going on with a merman quite strange, it does the heart good to see you this happy again. When we were children, you were always this vibrant ball of cheerfulness, and after the incident, it wasn't difficult to see something in you had altered. If you're happy, then so am I. Maybe one day you will allow me to meet this guy so I can thank him myself for putting a smile on your face."

Harry blushed at the endearing words of his friend, and then remembered. He dumped the treasures of coin from his pocket into his lap and handed all the coin over, keeping the emeralds for himself. "He gave me these today. Add them to your collection."

"Thank you, Harry," Liam said.

"You don't have to thank me every time, Liam."

"But, I do. You are the only person who doesn't think me wanting off of this island is a bad thing. My family calls the idea absurd, others in the village say life out there doesn't change, but they don't understand me like you do. Are you sure you don't want to come with Sophia and I? It would do me good to have both my girl and my best mate."

When Harry didn't answer, just kept his eyes on the floor boards, Liam grasped his shoulder and gave it a light jostle. "You stay here, then, with your new friend. If being here is what will keeps that goofy grin of yours on forever, then I'm sure that's what is best for you."

It was like his heart was doing backflips inside in Harry's chest. Louis did make him happy, happier and so much more content than he'd been in the last couple years, and he never wanted this feeling to leave him. This slim source of esteem for Louis had grown into something untamable overnight, and Harry felt like a flourishing rose blossoming faster and faster each day. Ever since laying eyes on Louis' captivating exterior, Harry wanted to know this boy for who he truly was, never wanting to go a day without seeing the incredible feature that was Louis' entirety.

Harry looked up to his friend, realizing what it was that could be happening inside him. "Liam," he said, "I think I may be falling in love with him."


	6. - The Words Unspoken

Waters of the Tenerife

Part VI

Morning was finally upon Louis and his journey soon began. He grew tired of gifting Harry with the same ol' gold tokens from the treasure chest in his underwater chamber, so planned to give him something even more tasteful, something that would always remind the human boy of the sea no matter how far he even ventured from it. He and his fellow merfolk called them Ocean Stones. They were crystal-like rock formations that lied within one of the deepest trenches in the Tenerife. He'd happened upon one long ago when he and Niall and a few other merfolk used to be more adventurous. But, since the frequent encounters with humans continued on, he was the only merman who still enjoyed getting away from the community.

Grabbing his shell pouch he was about to slip out of the circular opening of the sunken ship when Teiron, his eel companion, slithered out in front of him. He hissed curiously at Louis as he floated there before the merman.

Louis ran his hand down the eel, petting his slippery body down to the very end. "You nosy creature," he said, "Always asking where I'm going."

Teiron coiled around Louis, moving through his arms and around his waist, the purr coming from his fanged mouth completely understood.

Louis gave Teiron a suspicious look, "But you've never wanted to come anywhere with me. You're lazier than an octopus with a full stomach."

The eel slithered around Louis' bare chest before backing off.

"You have an 'eel's intuition'? Teiron, you're being ridiculous, I'm just going to the trench for a couple minutes. I'll be fine."

Teiron growled at the merman, then, insisting he tag along for the journey.

"Alright, alright," Louis gave in, "I hope you can keep up."

Keeping an eye out for Niall, Louis was able to slip away from the community without being noticed. He and Teiron traveled east, further and further out to sea. There was nothing but open water around them, the color blue surrounding them as the clouds above the surface shaded various spots atop the water.

The trench Louis had his mind on was called The Pitch by he and his people, because it was pitch black when one peered down into the drop-off. It was like an abyss of nothingness, but he'd been in it before, even alone at one point, and did not find it frightening in the least. Others always mentioned that Louis did nothing more than try too hard to shield his fear, when, in reality, Louis just wasn't afraid. The first time he'd laid eyes on The Pitch, he's wanted to nosedive straight to the bottom to see what lay at the floor. If he hadn't maintained such commitment and drive, he, or anyone for that matter, would have never discovered the Ocean Stones. They were rare ornaments and hard to come by simply because no one ever wanted to go where they were found, but today, Louis would make it his goal to take one to Harry, his pretty little human.

As he swam alongside Teiron's slinking body, Louis thought more of Harry, of his eyes, his beautiful curly hair, and those kissable flushed lips. He couldn't wait to see the happiness light up in Harry's eyes when he gave him the Ocean Stone, believing that surely the human boy would love it for all eternity.

Louis caught himself smiling for a second when Teiron gave him a strange look. He covered his mouth and chuckled, unable to mask the joy that came to his being at the mere thought of Harry. The boy was just so kind and gentle, so trusting and pure, something remarkable, and Louis was glad he'd been in such a perilous situation if it meant Harry was going to be here. He would never fear the surface if it meant Harry would always be there.

And he would always be there.

Wouldn't he?

Louis believed so.

A long ways from home, Louis at last came upon the entrance to The Pitch. A sandy ledge dropping into a black bowl. It was twelve yards wide and twenty in length, lines of bubbles rising up out of it every couple seconds. No other creatures were around, just Louis and Teiron drifting before this extensive hole in a section of the ocean floor.

Teiron hissed beside Louis, the nervousness in his remark clear as day.

"You want to wait here until I get back? I appreciate you coming along with me, but if you're absolutely afraid of what's inside, I won't be offended if you stay up here."

Not saying a word, the eel nodded toward the seemingly bottomless pit and Louis went first. The moment they disappeared from the ledge, the two were surrounded by a thick blackness. They strayed from being too close to the walls, making sure to keep a good distance from them. The first time Louis had come here, he and others had almost been bitten by conniving gulper eels, a vicious cousin to Teiron's benevolence. There were quite a few dangers that lied within the trench, but, of course, Louis had come prepared if anything happened upon them.

From his shell pouch, Louis withdrew a long dagger formed from the sharp end of a stingray's tail. It was fine enough to slice through and jab into any layer of flesh, no matter how thick, and Louis held it firm in his fist, ready to put it to use if needed.

Ten minutes passed as they continued to descend, swimming deeper and deeper into the mysterious sea. By this time, when Louis glanced above him, he could no longer see the bright circle of light in which they'd come from. He kept his eyes open, at least happy that his sight was developed enough to see in this kind of darkness.

After a while more, Louis looked toward Teiron and immediately halted...he was no longer by his side. "Teiron!" he called out, looking all around for his companion. A short ways above him, he spotted the eel floating hypnotically, and before him was a tiny, bobbing yellow light.

The moment Louis saw the light, he gasped and swam for Teiron.

The eel had been lured away from Louis' side by an angler fish, one of the most ugly and carnivorous species that lived at these dark depths. The very second Louis grabbed Teiron, the face of the angler fish fully illuminated as it gnashed out at them. Its fangs were spiked and hazardous, face wrinkled, eyes tiny black bulbs. When Teiron was in Louis' arms, he quickly escaped the creature, diving faster and faster away to gain some much needed distance.

"You have to be more careful, Teiron," Louis said, "This place is not somewhere you want to get tempted in. Stay with me, alright?"

The eel apologized, grateful the merman was there to keep him in check.

As the pair continued on, they finally reached the bottom after another ten minutes. It was like being completely abandoned by everyone at this depth. There was sand, small rock hills and freakish giant isopods, beetle-looking creatures with hard, white exteriors and tiny legs. Swimming above the floor, Louis kept his eyes out for the Ocean Stones. At the far end of the trench he found them. He picked one and looked it over. They never failed to make him love his home here in water. One half of the stone looked like pure open water, while the other took on an ocean floor life. Pinks, and greens and oranges resembled coral and fish, white spots bring to mind bubbles, and the brightness at the top looked much like the sun beaming down onto it. This was something truly worthy enough for Harry.

Tucking the stone into his pouch, Louis said, "Let's hurry up and get out of here, now."

Ready as well, Teiron led the way, slithering straight up above Louis.

With just a couple more meters to go, a sort of eeriness crept up on Louis. He glanced around him, not catching sight of anything in particular...until he noticed a white glared in the dark. It appeared to glow for only a second before everything went black again. Another dull flash brightened up on his right, but the moment he cocked his head in its direction it was gone again. "Teiron," he said, "I think we should swim faster."

Picking up their speed, relief came over Louis when the ledge of The Pitch was just an arm's length away, but the instance he rose up out of the dark, something wrapped tightly around his tail and dragged him back down. He screamed in surprise and blindly lashed out with his sharpened dagger. The tip caught something and tore into it, the grip on Louis' tale loosening after. He quickly looked around and what darted right at him terrified him to his core. It was a young colossal squid, grown to fifteen feet. Although the creature was just as deadly as it would be when full grown, he was at least glad it hadn't reached its forty foot length.

In a hurry, Louis raced away as it followed, his speed almost no match for it. He rose out of the trench to a confused Teiron and grabbed the eel. Coiling one it its six tentacles around Louis' tail, the squid slammed him to the floor. Louis' arm scraped a pile of jagged rocks, and he slashed the dagger out, cutting off the end of the tentacle. Blood gushed from the monster, but that did not stop it from going after the merman.

Releasing Teiron, Louis knew the only way he'd be able to get away from this thing would be to kill it. Besides, if he didn't, he'd only wind up leading it back to the community. Ready with the stingray dagger, Louis dogged the creature, "Come and get it, you scummy git."

The squid struck out at Louis, but even with his quickness, Louis was faster for this. He dodged away and cut into the beast, jabbing the dagger into it before pulling away. Missing a strike, Louis yelped when its tentacles spiraled around his entire body. He tried to thrust free, managing to get free after slamming his back up against a rock face. When the squid took hold of his arm, Louis found himself in perfect range and drove the dagger into the monster's giant eye. The squid lurched away, red blood spewing from its wounds until it finally darted away.

Tired, Louis looked for Teiron, and the eel's only concern was for the merman's welfare. "I'm fine," Louis assured, "Let's just go home already."

Back at the community, Louis was happy to find out he hadn't been missed, so it wouldn't be noticed if he disappeared yet again. He allowed Teiron the comfort of his chamber, and started for the shore where he was sure Harry would be.

And he was right.

Sat on the hidden boulder below the towering cliff, his boat drifting beside it, Harry was sat alone. He was dressed in plain black trousers and a frayed red wine blouse, a black scarf draped loosely around his neck, feet dipped into the water. Today his hair was not as it usually was, down and curly and windblown, today it was pulled up into a bun atop his head, not a single strand framing his pretty face.

Harry spied Louis coming from afar, the brilliant colors swimming towards him.

Louis hopped up on the edge of the rock after breaking the surface, and shook the water from his hair.

The curly boy's cheeks blushed the shade of his lips, and he smiled, "I almost thought you weren't coming today."

Giving a confused look, Louis peered at the horizon. It was evening time by now and the sun was beginning to set. He hadn't realized taking a trip to The Pitch would take almost all day.

"But you're here now," Harry added, "I'm happy to see you."

Louis raised his hand and lightly traced it down Harry's dimpled cheek, wanting so much to say what was on his mind, but still could not. Instead of words, however, Louis used the only other manner he could to show Harry how he felt. He kissed the human boy, allowing the savor of their lips to meet for just a moment.

When Louis pulled away, Harry's voice was a whisper of the huskiness it usually took on. "I don't think I will ever get used to that."

Louis smiled brightly and dug the Ocean Stone from his pouch, setting it in the human's boy's hands.

Laying his pine green eyes on it, Harry was at a loss for words at the incredible creation in his grasp.

The longer Harry said nothing, however, the more Louis thought he didn't like the gift. He chewed his lip nervously, and flinched when Harry shouted, "This is beautiful!"

Louis slipped off the rock and fell into the water. The slash made Harry jump as well and he stood. When Louis resurfaced, he raised a finely arched brow up at Harry.

"I'm sorry," Harry laughed, "I didn't mean to scare you."

Putting it aside, Louis gestured to the stone, as if asking, "Do you like it?"

"Oh, yes," Harry said, hugging it against his chest, "I love it, thank you!"

After he was sat upon the rock again, Louis made a circular motion around the center of his chest.

Harry wasn't quite sure how to interpret the sign, tilting his head to an angle of misunderstanding.

Louis shook his head, a small "Never mind," in his timid smile.

He couldn't think of another way to wordlessly say what was on his mind, wanting the words, "I love you," to fall off his tongue just as easily as any words slipped from Harry's, but...he couldn't. He wished he could do more than give Harry gifts, more than move his hands in hopes the boy could understand him, but being from two worlds set them so far apart, and he couldn't take it. He wanted to be able to speak in terms Harry could comprehend without having to think about it, tell him in long draw out sentences how he felt, how grateful he was, how...in love...he was with the curly boy, even with having spent so little time together.

As if noting the reason for Louis' dejection, Harry met the blue gaze of the merman and offered a soft smile. "It's okay you can't speak," he said. "My mother used to tell me 'actions speak louder than words', and from how you've treated me over the past few days, I know, Louis. I know."

A woeful smile touched at Louis' lips, still wishing he could speak to Harry like everyone else from his home was able to. One day, he hoped. One day he would tell Harry, in words, of the feelings that entered his life not long ago.


	7. - The Fading of a Constant Star

Waters of the Tenerife

VII - The Fading of a Constant Star

It was morning but Harry didn't much feel like getting out of bed. As he lay there beneath the covers, he stared toward the object sat on his nightstand, the Ocean Stone given to him by Louis two weeks before. It was such a beautiful gift, and every time he looked at it, he would be reminded that there was someone out there who cared for him in a way no one else did. Harry knew his family and Liam loved him, but their admiration was something entirely different from Louis'. What the merman felt for him was, in a way, otherworldly, and an internal experience that Harry never wanted to fade. If there was one thing he was sure of, it was that this boy from the sea, Louis, he cared for Harry in a manner no one else could.

Though the merman was silent as ever, and has never spoken a single audible word to him, Harry was completely aware of what the gifts meant, of the meaning behind every smile, the soft gaze in Louis' crystal blue eyes, he knew of the sentiment that as lain behind them all. And with every mutual kiss they shared, it only strengthened his own strong feelings.

Anxious suddenly to see the merman, Harry jumped out of bed and readied for the day. After quickly throwing on dark brown trousers and a white shirt, he placed the locket necklace that'd been given to him over his head, and quietly tiptoed out of the house. With the sun just rising over the horizon, he could see the beautiful expanse of the ocean from the edge of the village. The sun sparkled atop the water prettily, leaving a white shiny gleam on the surface as gentle waves stroked the earth. When he made it to the edge of the sand, Harry pulled off his boots, allowing his feet to sink into the sand, leaving behind prints once he reached the damp shore.

He wondered if it was far too early in the morning for Louis to be here, but deiced to take his chances at waiting anyway. A small ways down the beach, he found the small row bow he'd purchased not long ago, and shoved it from behind until it bobbed on the water. When he stepped inside, he used one of the oars to push off, rowing around to the hidden curve engraved into the high cliff. For an hour or so, he was there alone, just him and the musical sounds of the calm sea. He peered over the ledge of the boat and peered down into the clear water, small bright fish of all colors swimming about just out of reach.

A moment later, Harry looked up when he heard a large splash, but instead of being Louis as he'd hoped, a dolphin was there poking its head out of the water. Harry smiled at the light grey animal, "Hello," he said, even though he knew the creature couldn't understand him.

The dolphin clicked and dove under the water, and a couple seconds later sprung into a full back flip before descending again. The playful trick brought a smile to the curly boy's face. When the dolphin resurface, he said, "Very nice! Perfect technique."

A squeal left the creature then and Harry rutted his brow, a little put off when it bit down on the rope dangling in the water ahead of the boat, and began to pull him further away from the cliff.

"Wait," he worried, looking back to see just how much distance was between him and shoreline. He swallowed, nervous but a part of him was certain nothing would happen. It was just a dolphin, after all. Out passed a high boulder rising from the ocean floor, the boat was released and Harry took the quick opportunity to tuck the rope inside the boat, just to be sure he couldn't be taken any further. As the animal continued to swim circles around him, Harry wondered when Louis would show up. They didn't have scheduled times to meet, so determining what time of day was always a hassle, especially when he was truly desperate to see the blue eyed boy.

It wasn't until the sounds that accompanied swimming came to a stop, that Harry looked around and found that the dolphin had disappeared without a trace. Before he could think about rowing the boat closer to the beach, he gasped when there was a knock against the bottom of the floating craft. Harry worried momentarily, and then caught a quick flash of color in his peripheral. But, this color was not one he was used to seeing on a day to day basis. While Louis' tail fin wielded cool colors of blues, purples, and greens, this one had taken the hint of warm colors. Shades of red.

Another knock came to the bottom of the boat and Harry grabbed onto the sides to steady himself. After a third knock, he stared back towards the front of the boat when a ray of blond hair surfaced from beneath, and with it came a neutral boy with sky blue eyes. It was Niall.

"You are Louis' new friend?"

Harry gasped at the question asked, not having expected to hear the merman speak. "Y-yes," he answered. "You know him?"

The merman shook the flatness from his matted down hair, and lied back on the water, his long red tail coming into view when he crossed his arms behind his head. "Louis used to be my friend," he said. "We used to be very close until he started to gain an obsession with the surface. This place, it is dangerous for our kind, yet he always come back no matter what happens to him."

The curly boy nibbled down on his lip, wondering now if Louis risked these dangers just to see him every day. "Things have been fine," Harry assured, "No one comes to this part of the island so–."

"You think you can keep him a secret for long?" Niall laughed, "Your people are prone to endanger the lives of everything around you. Louis and I, we once tried to meet your kind, and were welcomed only by the threats of capture and death. You might think you're different, but you are likely the one thing that can get Louis killed. And I would have that stopped before it can happen."

"But..." Harry stopped when Niall glared darkly at him. Was there really anything he could say that would convince this bias merman that he spoke nothing but the truth? "...I care about Louis," he continued, "I would never risk his discovery to people who'd want to hurt him."

Niall rolled his blue eyes and neared the boat once more, "I don't care what you say. I'll stop your influence on Louis one way or another. And I've got a nice idea as to how I'm going to do it."

When Niall touched the side of the boat, Harry gulped down his worry, and before he could plead to the red tail, sucked in a scared breath of air and was sent falling backwards, the boat tipping over to toss him from it. The moment he felt the cool waters of the ocean touch him, a sharp line of panic shot through Harry. He was submerged a second later, and he opened his eyes, wanting to scream out for help but knew if he tried, not a single thing would be gained from it. He kicked his lanky legs as hard as he could, pushing his arms down as to raise himself up, but the only thing he did was exhaust himself.

As Harry sunk, he saw the red blur of Niall's tail vanish quickly. He gritted his teeth when the tightness in his chest begged for air, and when he couldn't take it anymore, his human instinct kicked in and he breathed in, taking nothing but the burn of saltwater into his body. The center of his chest and nose burned relentlessly as he clawed for the surface, able to feel as each painful gasp he took dragged him further and further beneath the waves.

_

Louis was more excited to see Harry today more than any day prior. For the past week and a half, he'd spent hours upon hours getting his words right. For a long time he'd been able to understand the English words coming out of human mouths, and for a long time he'd been schooling himself to also speak such a language, one of the many languages of man. He hadn't been able to get much sleep during this time for his hours awake getting the words right. Speaking had been one of his dreams as a merman, and after such a long time...he finally could, and there were so many things he wanted to tell Harry. In words, he wanted to tell the human boy just how beautiful he was, tell him of the strong feelings that resided in his heart. He hoped that with what he had to say, would help build the strange bond they had with one another.

Racing through the sea, Louis hurried as fast as he could. From the treasure chest in his sunken ship, he'd gathered many rubies and emeralds, gold tokens and diamonds into his shell pouch. He wanted to bathe Harry in riches upon his loving confession, give him what little he could that had a chance at making the human boy happy.

As he rushed through the soft current pushing him along, Louis suddenly spotted a blur of red off in the far distance. He couldn't quite make out what it was from this far, but there was only one thing that came to mind whenever he saw such a color. Niall. But...what could be possibly be doing this close to the shoreline when he already despised it so much? Wanting to go after the merman for a second, Louis brushed it off and kept on, not able to get rid of the possibilities of Niall's journey to the beach. As worry settled in, Louis picked up the pace and what he witnessed after another minute sent a shockwave of terror tracing through his entire body.

Drifting several meters below to surface of the water was Harry.

He looked oddly peaceful here under water, hair moving about with a mind of its own, expression soft and sleeping with his eyes closed. But...

Fear kicking into overdrive, Louis dashed for Harry's still body and wrapped him in his arms. He heaved the human boy upwards, struggling acutely with his weight. Was this Niall's doing, could the red tail really have gone through with such a harmful and reckless act? Louis' heart pounded inside his chest, suddenly feeling like the surface was further than it actually was. Gritting his teeth, he pushed himself fast with Harry's limp form over the top of his shoulder.

When he finally broke the surface, air entered his lungs but Harry continued with his stillness. Louis dragged the human boy with all the strength he could muster across the water. Please be okay, he repeated in his head.

Once he touched the sandy ledge in the water, Louis dragged Harry further towards the shore, this part being the hardest due to Harry's unconscious weight. Sitting back, Louis tucked his arms under Harry's, pulling and pulling with all he had, knowing this would be a lot easier if he hadn't this buggering tail and a pair of legs instead. After Harry was lain just above the pulse of the tide, Louis hovering over him, terror entered his eyes further at the realization that the boy's chest wasn't moving. Silently, Louis fell to pieces, not knowing what he was supposed to do to save Harry, to save this person whose love he wanted more than anything in his world. Lost in apprehension, he tipped Harry's head back, figuring opening up the airway was a good idea. His eyes strung with ocean-like tears as he brought his mouth over Harry's, breathing into him. Take mine, he thought, take my breath.

Pushing down on the boy's chest, Louis repeated his panicked routine, offering his breath in return for life. When nothing proved to be working, Louis felt the shimmer of tears run down his face like raindrops from the sky. Looking about Harry unmoved face, he cupped the boy's cheek with a tender hand, "Please," he spoke, the cry deep inside coming out in shaky breaths and fluster, "Please, don't leave me."

Abruptly then, Harry's chest began to shake and he coughed violently, chunks of water leaving his throat as Louis gasped and sat back on the sand. The human boy clawed at his shirt as if tearing the saltwater from within him. When all of it was out, he gulped down air in great swallows of desperation, opening his eyes when he felt a hand touch at his knee. Flinching away from the contact, he met Louis' scared, concerned eyes, pushing away from the merman on the sand. There was an unbelievable amount of fear in his green eyes, so much that it drained every bit of trust he had for anything he'd once thought safe.

As Louis watched restlessly as Harry stumbled away from him, the merman shook his head and reached out, "Don't," he reached out with a vibrant shine of plea in his crystal eyes, "Don't go, H-Harry. Please."

A dash of wonder crept into Harry upon actually being able to hear Louis speak, but everything was quickly overcome by his fear of the vast expanse of ocean behind the merman. With his heart pounded and veins itching with uncertainty, Harry turned his back on Louis and hurried up the beach, his quick footsteps sinking as he put despairing distance between him and the one thing that tried to take his life for a second time.

"Harry!" Louis called tearfully, but no matter how much he wanting to run after the human boy, hold him and tell him he was safe now, Louis could not bring himself much further from the sea. He closed two shaky fists into the sand under his hands, drops of tears falling from his eyes, the entirety of himself knowing he'd never be able to go after the boy on his own. "Come back," he cried, "Come back to me!"

Not matter Louis' please, however, soon Harry disappeared over the hill of the sand dunes and the merman was alone. He stayed there on the beach for hours, keeping to the hope that the curly boy would return. He wanted to console Harry, tell him he was sorry for enticing him to go into the water when he'd already known Harry had an unshakable unease for the deep waters. But, no matter the hour, with each that went by, Louis was alone until he gave up, taking back into his home beneath the waves. Perhaps time would tell if he and Harry were meant to be more to one another, more than a quick moment of joy here upon this earth.

Taking one last glance back onto shore, Louis released a tight sigh from his chest, "I'm sorry," he said, and then into the sea he went.


	8. - When You Make A Wish

Carrying a bundled load of logs on his back, Liam stopped alongside his house when he spotted Harry coming up the pathway. The curly-haired boy was soaked from head to toe, but seeing him like that confused Liam. For once, the skies over the island were clear from clouds, no rain was set to fall on this day, yet it seemed Harry had somehow managed to get himself all wet. Confused, he froze when Harry finally looked up at him, a familiar sense of dread in his eyes that shook Liam from the inside out. Dropping the load of logs, he darted for his best mate, “Oh, god! It happened again.”

The moment Liam was just a meter from him, Harry collapsed from his fearful exhaustion, captured by concerned and protective arms before he could completely fall to the ground. “What happened, Harry?” Liam demanded. “What happened to you out there? Did he – did that merman do this to you?”

Unable to settle his nerves, Harry trembled uncontrollably, pushing further into Liam’s embrace to remind himself he was safe here on land. His throat burned relentlessly and tears began to blur his vision, everything around him going watery. Harry turned his face into Liam’s shirt, curling his fists as a cry he couldn’t resist left him, unsteadying his fragile lungs at the thought of everything that’d happened.

“It’s all right,” Liam did his best to calm the sobbing boy, holding him tight as he brushed comforting fingers through Harry’s hair. “You’re safe, now. You’re going to be okay.” He shook his head, “Damn it all. I knew I shouldn’t have let you continue seeing that merman. Knowing he did this to you–.”

“No!” Harry voiced. “It – it wasn’t him. Another one.”

Another one? Liam couldn’t believe Harry had come into contact with not only one, but two merfolk, and it seemed he’d gotten on the wrong side of the other. If this Louis merman could coexist with a human, what on Earth was so wrong with the other? Liam couldn’t help but fume at the thought of Harry having been left for dead. “Tell me what happened,” Liam said, rubbing a comforting hand along his mate’s back. “Why was this done to you?”

Wiping his eyes, Harry ran a hand back through his long curly locks. “I had never seen him but once, just today, and he spoke of never wanting me around Louis ever again. He said the surface is a dangerous place, all in all that I would indefinitely be the end of Louis if we continued to see each other. But – but, Liam, I don’t – I don’t want to stop seeing Louis.” Harry cupped his face in his hand, shaking in dread and uncertainty. “Oh, god! I ran away from him. He probably thinks I – that I never want to see him again.”

“You can’t possibly be thinking about going back. Harry, something much worse could happened to you if this vengeful fishboy has his eye on seriously hurting you.”

“But Louis–.”

“By the sound of it, Harry, Louis isn’t always going to be there to protect you from everything.”

“He saved me!” the curly boy shouted then. He tried to stand, stumbling back on his wobbly feet until he was able to catch himself against Liam’s chest. Looking up into his best mate’s auburn eye, he went on. “If it hadn’t been for Louis’ being there when he was, I wouldn’t be standing here right now. You wouldn’t be face to face with me if it hadn’t been for him.” Stabilizing himself away from Liam, he said, “Why did I run from him?”

Draping an arm around Harry’s shoulder, Liam guided him along towards his family’s home. “C’mon, let’s get you inside for now, get you some dry clothes before you go on and catch a sickness.”

Bringing Harry inside, it was all Liam felt he could do to deter his best mate from running back to the beach. It was all he could do for now, but a part of him desperately didn’t want to see Harry traveling back to the beach, not now, not ever. No man was a match for the sea, especially if there was already something in it that was totally against them. Unable to swim, Harry was an easy target, so keeping him away, or at least keeping a watchful eye on him was all he could do as a friend. Because he knew he alone wouldn’t be capable in restricting Harry was doing as he pleased. Especially when his heart was involved. If Harry wanted to see Louis…he’d find a way.

Besides, Liam wasn’t one to hold another back from pursuing a love they were sure of.

He sat Harry before the fireplace after the boy was undressed and wrapped in a blanket, warming up by the kindle while Liam went to scavenge his bedroom for fresh clothing. As he stared into the flickering flames, Harry silently relived the incident, remembering the choke of the water clogging up his throat, the sinking feelings in the center of his chest, even the exposed burn of his eyes from the saltwater all around him. In the fire he was reminded of the red scales of the merman who’d done it to him, the crimson shade of his table, short blonde streaks of his hair. The anger that had been in his bright blue eyes…Harry wondered how something that looked so pure could wield so much hate.

Louis crossed his mind then, his beautiful face hovering over him as consciousness pooled back into his body. He didn’t blame the merman for showing up late, after the traumatic incident, but he did wish he had been there much sooner. Then, he wouldn’t be here, a replica of the scared little boy he’d been when he was a small child, trembling at the mere thought of the ocean at his feet.

He recalled Louis’ pleading voice on the shore, virtually crying out for him to stay. Harry wouldn’t have thought the first time hearing him speak would be while his back was turned, during a moment when the only thing on his mind was to get away. He’d wanted their first shared conversation to be filled with promises, precious secrets only they would know the true meaning to, but instead, here he was, feeling a thousand years away from the first person he’d found what he could only describe as love in. Holding the blanket tighter around himself, Harry sighed, “I’m so sorry, Louis. I didn’t know what else to do.”

After Harry could breathe naturally again without shaking from the harrowing recollections, Liam walked him home through the village. His family was having supper in the front dining area, but he wasn’t much up for eating once he arrived. Saying goodbye to Liam, Harry simply made his way to his bedroom and shut the door behind him. The small room hadn’t much to it. A dresser for his folded garments, a gas lamp that he lit upon entry, a twin bed with clean sheets and a pillow, and just before the window overlooking the skyline was a chair.

When the door was closed behind him, Harry looked towards the top of his dresser. Sitting beside a pile of crinkled books and a journal was the Ocean Stone he’d been given by Louis. He took the beautiful formation into his hands and turned it over. It seemed no matter the lighting this stone was in, it would forever hold a luminescent glow, showing off what splendor was crafted into its ethereal creation. It sparkled in Harry’s grasp, the breathtaking tints of oceanic color glimmering in the palm of his hand like a soft song with a beckoning melody.

Clutching the Ocean Stone to his chest, Harry sat down at the side of his bed before lying down, his head resting in the feather stuffed pillow. He wanted to believe he had the strength to face Louis again. No, it wasn’t Louis, it was what partly made Louis who he was, the sea. The human boy couldn’t imagine himself in it again, or even just a few steps away. Just thinking about the waters of the Tenerife filled him with unshakeable dread. But he had to get over it. Had to. If he ever wished to see Louis again, look about his lovely face, bask in his wonder, and feel those lips against his own, Harry knew he would have to fight his fear from holding him back.

“Tomorrow,” Harry said. “I will see you tomorrow.”

_

Louis knew where he was headed. And he knew what he was going to do once he arrived. Long ago when he and Niall were young merchildren growing up in the reef, they used to stray far away from their guardians, especially during a time where hiding from others was necessary. And Louis knew very well Niall would hide from him after what he’d done to Harry. How could he go so deep into the depths to try and kill? Louis knew the red-tail wanted to make sure he stayed away from the surface, and the only thing keeping Louis going back day after day was Harry, but to put effort into…drowning the human boy…it was mad to think Niall could do such a thing.

On one note, Louis understood Niall’s fears of wanting him to stay away from humans. They’d gone through so much together when it came to experiencing the evils that followed them as marvelous creatures of the sea. But on the other, Louis wanted Niall to realize that Harry truly was different from the rest. It seemed, however, the only way to get Niall to understand was to drive it into him.

It was an underwater cavern out in the middle of the Tenerife, small mountains of jagged rock topped with sand and sea life. Open at the surface so the light of the sun casting through the water could shine inside, it used to be him and Niall’s hiding spot, a place to get away from strict guardians. Louis stopped before entering the circular opening, peeking down into it for a moment to remain hidden. The floor of the cavern was of sand, and lain in the center of the lit base was Niall. His blond tresses and red-tail swayed back and forth in the low current of the water, head resting on the fold of his arms as though waiting for time to pass. How could he look so at peace with himself after what he’d done? Was he truly so cold?

The moment Louis swam out above the opening of the cavern, his shadow was cast down below, the dark silhouette of his body catching Niall’s attention. When he dove down, the red-tail rose from lying down, turning quickly to face the blue-eyed merman. They were surrounded by rock and vegetation on all sides, curious tiny fish watching from the dark edges of the cavern.

Leveled with Niall but at a distance, Louis rutted his curved brows in anger, the mere look of his eyes telling of how he felt. “You are so worried for me that you would kill the only thing in this world that brings me happiness?” Louis shouted, and when the red-tail showed no sign of regret in his sky blue eyes, Louis had never wanted to strike another so badly. “You wield a hatred for humans in your heart, I and every other of our kind know this, but Harry is not what you selfishly think he is. Since the very first time we laid eyes on each other, he has been nothing but kind to me. He saved my life, is probably one of the only mortals upon the surface who would do something like what he did for me, and you want to rid him from this world, all because I am in love with him?”

Niall looked away at the mere word.

“Yes, Niall, I am in love with Harry, a human you so unnecessarily disapprove of, and I will only ever cease from loving him like I do when the life in my body fades into the depths. I would give up anything for him.”

“Idiot.”

“Anything!” Louis emphasized. “If I could trade my tail and the entire sea just to walk beside him, I would do it all in a single heartbeat, and nothing you can say will ever change that. I will see him again, Niall. You won’t stop me.”

“I may not be the one to stop you from your reoccurring visits, but someone will, and when that time comes, you will wish you had never laid eyes on that air-breather.”

“I only have one more thing to say to you, and I will never speak to you again. Stay away from Harry and stay away from me.” Louis then turned his back on the red-tail and started away, leaving the blond merman down in their once shared cavern. He didn’t know where to go once he left the cavern. He didn’t want to go back to the congregation and he was in such desperation to see Harry, but a part of him believed that the human boy would never want to even lay eyes on the ocean again.

With hope taking over his doubt, however, Louis swam back towards the island. If there was anything he wanted, he wanted to tell Harry he was desperately sorry about restoring the boy’s faith in the sea. This wasn’t a place meant for a human to frolic, nor was it a place to find love. Land was the territory of man, not to ocean, and it would never be. This was an entirely different universe not meant for the likes of humans, and Louis was sorry for thinking his mere love for Harry could change that fact.

He arrived to the shore after a while of swimming, hours passing as he sat up on a protruding rock. Night draped over the land and sea, but Louis didn’t move from that very spot. It felt like centuries until the sun rose once again, bathing the world around him with light. He turned his back to the beach as the sun rose from the east, this burning yellow sphere rising against the ocean skyline. He took in the stillness of his home, the calm surface of the sea that appeared empty, but in truth was filled with more than meets the eye.

His body was completely dry by now, his auburn hair blew more freely than it usually did against the wind, soft streaks brushing against the nape of his neck. He was getting cold even with the sun’s warm rays.

“Louis?”

At the sound of that familiar voice calling his name in question, Louis turned around on the rock’s surface, his eyes sweeping across the stretch of beach. As he’d hoped, Harry Styles was standing there at the edge of the shore, boots just barely missing the pulse of each wave that ran up the sand. He wore dark brown leather trousers and a cream colored blouse, long tresses passed his shoulders, curled at the ends and pushed back out of his face. Before Louis slipped from the rock, he noticed something else about the human boy, with him he was carrying the Ocean Stone Louis had given to him a short while back, the glistening gem like a miniature rainbow in the palms of his hands.

Diving into the water, Louis swam up to the shore, almost having to fight back the tears of self-resentment filling him. He sat down at the edge of the water, tail swaying as if it had a mind of its own, and Harry took a seat as well. “I – I’m sorry,” Louis apologized, the human boy still taken aback that he could actually hear the merman’s pretty pitched and raspy voice. It was unique. “I’m so sorry about what Niall did to you. I didn’t know he was so – I didn’t know he could do something like that. I’m so sorry you had to go through that all over again while I should have been here. If I hadn’t taken so long to get to you, that would have never happened and you–.”

Harry tore his eyes from Louis’, instead looking down at the Ocean Stone in his grasp. The merman silenced himself when Harry looked away as well, thinking perhaps he shouldn’t talk so much. And he nearly flinched when Harry leaned towards him for a kiss, their lips taking to one another in a soft momentous second. Louis’ eyes fluttered shut and he softly cupped the side of Harry’s face, his heart-rate picking up in that instant. When their lips parted ever so slightly for a breath of air, Louis’ voice trembled when he said, “I wish I could stay here. With you. I don’t want to go back.”

Their foreheads touched, noses brushing against each other’s as Harry nudged closer. Before he could think about speaking, however, he was baffled when he felt the Ocean Stone in his hand begin to warm his palm. Confused, he looked down at the beautiful sea-like gem, stunned to find it glowing radiantly. He and Louis both watched the Ocean Stone with perplexity in their gaze. “What’s going on?” Harry asked, having never experienced anything from what he once thought to be an ordinary crystal.

Louis was just as puzzled as the light emitting from the Ocean Stone became more and more brilliant. Suddenly he and Harry were both engulfed in the vibrant white glittering light, and Louis felt something bizarre and unsettling stir within his body, the feeling of his spine and bones tingled beneath his skin. Then suddenly he couldn’t tell where his tail was, if he was still sitting in the same position as before. He reached out for Harry in the blinding surroundings, their hands finding one another’s. “What’s going on?” the human boy asked, fear in his tone of voice.

“I’m not sure,” Louis admitted.

Like a burst of energy thrust the blinding light away, the whiteness around them vanished quickly. Louis could finally see Harry before him once more, the human boy shaken by the abrupt moment. Still unable to feel his tail even after the light was gone, Louis looked down on himself…and froze.

His tail was gone.

And it’d been replaced with a pair of legs.


	9. - Gold For a Fool

Part IX

Harry turned his head immediately when he’d looked down to find Louis completely naked. His cheeks warmed several degrees in astonishment and embarrassment, clasping a hand over his mouth when a small peep left his lips. While this boy sat before him in not a thing at all, the curly-haired boy tried to piece together what the heck was going on. One second Louis was wishing he could stay here on land, and then the next he was here with not a tail, but a set of legs after being engulfed in a ball of light. With his head turned away from the naked boy in front of him, Harry felt the temperature in his body rise.

Louis looked down on his waistline, fearing and admiring the pair of legs that’d magically replaced his tail upon a wish. He couldn’t explain how this happened, but he was pretty sure it had everything to do with the Ocean Stone sitting in the sand beside him now. It no longer glistened prettily like it used to. Now, it was just a black coal-like stone, having used up its lustrous charm after fulfilling Louis’ wish. He touched tentatively at his thighs, stretching his legs out on either side of Harry so the curly-haired boy was sat between them. Louis touched his toes then, the dashes of dread sprinkled inside of him fading slowly as wonder replaced it. And this thing between his legs, it was–

“Um, Louis?” Harry finally spoke up, still facing away with wide eyes, “Where’s your tail?”

“I don’t – I don’t know,” Louis said.  
Bringing his legs back, Louis then leaned forward on his hands, bending his knees and he tried to push himself up from the sand. An amused smile came to his lips when he felt as his toes dug into the soft beach.   
When he was upright, he attempted to keep what balance he could, taking an unstable step back until he suddenly stumbled forward and fell on top of Harry.

The curly-haired boy toppled back when Louis landed on him, forced down in the sand while the bare-skinned boy straddled him. Louis smiled cheerfully down at him, more excited about this strange change than Harry was expecting him to be. “How do you walk on these things without falling over all the time?” He sat atop Harry while the other boy stared up with his cheeks nearly the shade of a red apple.

When Louis tried to stand again, Harry rolled out from under him, getting to his feet quickly and unbuttoned his shirt. Before Louis could think to move again, he tied the garment around the boy’s waist to cover his bum and groin.

There.

Finally, Harry could breathe again.  
Louis looked down at what Harry had done, nearly falling over once again until he was caught by helpful arms. Pressed against Harry’s chest, he looked up into those questioning emerald eyes. They were scared. “What’s wrong?” Louis asked, trying to keep himself stable as he came out of the other boy’s arms.

Harry looked Louis over, puzzled that he just seemed to be taking this whole situation rather well. “Aren’t you afraid,” he asked. “Just like that your tail is gone and you’re not wondering where in the world it went?”

Louis looked down at his new toes half buried in the sand he was standing in. He was standing. He had toes. All of this was so frighteningly astonishing to him that Louis almost didn’t know what to feel about what had happened. Just a couple minutes ago he’d already felt like he’d give anything to be here exactly how he was now, and suddenly that single wish had come true. Sure, he couldn’t quite understand how all of this had happened to him, but to actually stand here on the shoreline beside Harry, a boy he’d already come to believe he loved…Louis just didn’t care where his tail had gone.

“Aren’t you happy,” the blue-eyed boy asked. “Don’t you want me here with you?”

“Of course, I do!” Harry exclaimed worriedly. “I don’t mean to make it sound like I don’t want you here. I’m just…confused.”

Louis watched as Harry took a step back and began to pace, leaving a straight line beneath him from all the walking back and forth. “Are you sure,” Louis said, his voice small, “you don’t want me to go back? If my being here hurts you, then I’ll just go back.”

“No,” Harry stopped his mindless walking and took Louis’ hand in his own, holding him back as if he would have actually tried to enter the water again. “I want you here with me, Louis, I really do, and even if you wanted to go back, I know you wouldn’t be able to.”

“Why not?”

Harry reached out for the other boy, touching just above his collar bones where a set of gills once were. Now they were gone. And that wasn’t the only change to follow such a bizarre incident. Louis now looked completely human. His long colorful tail, the gills that closed whenever he was above water, the sharp point of his ears, and even the two extra fins that were once at the back of his elbows, all of it was gone.

“You’re a human now,” Harry said, “If you go back into the water, if you stay down there for too long…” he swallowed nervously at the mere thought, “…you would drown.”

“Drown?” Louis said more to himself than anything. The fearsome yet simple term that described the inability to last under the surface was so strange. Especially since he’d done it all this life.

Taking Louis’ hand in his own again, Harry guided them away from the water’s edge. “That’s why we don’t go in. That’s why we stay up here. Do you really not care that you will never be able to go back? Won’t you miss it? After all, it was your home.”

Wanting to come to terms with that idea, Louis shook his head, droplets from his hair’s previous dampness sprinkling onto his shoulders. “I don’t want to go back,” he said, looking out at the glistening waters. “So long as that place came with others who would not understand that I come here for a selfless reason, that place could never truly be a place to call home. You, wherever you are, Harry, that is where my home is.”  
Weak to the tender words that could now be spoken to him, Harry felt his heart tick in a fashion that was oh so new to him. This feeling in the center of his chest, this feeling that grew more and more each time he looked into those ocean blue eyes, being able to gaze upon such a wonderful person, and to now hear his voice speak to him in way no one ever has…Harry wouldn’t allow himself to lock away the sentiments that drove his heart to this thing called love. And he felt it. He did. In his fingertips, in the middle of his chest, Harry could feel perfectly what it was to love.

And it all happened so fast.

Unable to stop himself, Harry embraced Louis, stunning the near naked boy as he held him tight. “Maybe now we will never have to worry about being apart,” he said, voice almost hinting a whisper, “We can be together. Here.”

Louis loosened his grip on the other boy, pressing his lips to the side of Harry’s jawline, kissing him again and again until finally meeting the curly boy’s lips. This kiss, unlike the ones that’d come before, stirred Louis in a manner he was unfamiliar with. Whenever he’d kissed Harry before, when he’d had a tail, the only stimulations that entered him were felt mainly in his upper body. Things like his heart beat pick up to a faster pace, or even a rush that would travel down his spine, but that sensation no longer stopped at his spine. He could feel it in his toes, especially around his waist, and it seemed to grow the moment he placed his hand on Harry’s hips and pulled him closer.

Their tongues slipped passed one another’s, and the moment Louis took a step forward to satisfy this odd sensation in his groin, their footing became wobbly and they fell backwards into the sand. Suddenly amused by his clumsiness, a soft laugh left Louis’ lips and he turned over on top of Harry. The curly-haired-boy swallowed nervously as a hazy blue stare met his own. His heart was beating so hard now, he could virtually feel it about to burst from his chest, the pound so rapid and strong in his ear drums.

Breath shaking after every inhale, Harry didn’t know what to do with his hands when Louis straddled his waist. Harry gasped when the blue-eyed-boy kissed down the side of his neck, never before feeling just how sensitive his entire body was now that this boy was so closed to him. His hands were trembling as he allowed his arms to embrace around the boy atop him, his eyes fluttering shut when Louis’ touch moved up into the bottom of his shirt. A sharp gasp seeped from his mouth when wandering fingers brushed passed his nipples, and Louis was quick to sit up and look down at him from the response.

“Have I hurt you?” Louis inquired.

With half open emerald eyes that stared breathless up at Louis, Harry almost looked like he was in pain as he lay there in the tan crystal-like sand. “No,” he voiced numbly. Nearly every point in his body was tingly with this new form of excitement, and all of it was provoked by Louis and his lips, his curious fingers, even his oceanic scent made Harry long for him even more than he had before.

Gaining the strength to sit up with Louis in his lap, the curly-haired-boy was about to speak when–

“Harry?”

He whipped his head around in fright at the distant call of his name. Liam was standing at the peak of a sand dune several meters away. He wore dark brown trousers and a white button shirt, and as he drew nearer, Harry grew more nervous as to how he should approach the situation with him. Because, by the looks of it, this wasn’t a very explanatory situation to be in.

Quickly as he could, Harry helped Louis to his feet and shook the sand from his hair. When Liam was close enough, his brown eyes moved back and forth from Harry to this stranger stood rather awkwardly beside him. Before he could question his best mate, Harry said, “L–Liam, what are you doing here?”

“I know I never usually follow you out here,” Liam said, still trying to see if he could figure out who this other guy was. Most of everyone was familiar with each other in the village, but he couldn’t put a name to his face. “But after what happened the other day, I got really worried and I thought I should come looking for you.”

“Well,” Harry paused, “I’m alright.”

Liam nodded to the boy beside his mate then, “Who’s this guy?”

Harry then looked to the blue-eyed-boy. He didn’t see any reason to lie to Liam. There kind of wasn’t any way around the whole position he was in. He could perhaps throw in a lie that said he’d found this naked boy washed up on the beach, but…that probably wouldn’t do well given he’d been caught with this naked boy on top of him. And who just makes out with a stranger after they’d washed up on the beach? No one, that’s who.

“Liam,” Harry said, placing a hand at the other boy’s backside, “This is Louis.”

Immediately, Liam rutted his brow in perplexity, looking this new person up and down with a look that told Harry he wasn’t buying it. “This is Louis? I thought you said he was a…a merman?”

“I am,” Louis answered before Harry, “I’ve got legs now, is all.”

Liam was almost amazed to have heard him speak if this truly was the Louis his best mate had told him all about. Where was his tail? The scales and gills? This person looked so human, when he’d been imagining something…someone so different.

“I can’t really explain how,” Harry said, “But his tailfin disappeared.”

“Try me,” Liam said.

“Um,” Harry tried, “A little while back Louis gave me something, a strangely beautiful rock formation that came from the ocean, and while I was holding it here with me, he wished to stay on land with me. Next thing we know, his tail is gone and here we are.”

Liam nodded, a fair light in his eyes that almost wasn’t buying the story, but this was Harry Styles telling him this. He was the last person in their entire village who would try to fabricate something that sounded so preposterous. “So you made a wish and it came true.”

“In simplest terms,” Harry said, “Yes, that’s what happened.”

“Right, what’s going to happen now?”

Grateful that Liam never took the time to call him insane like people have done to his father for years, Harry looked to Louis and it looked like he was busy studying this new person who appeared to know Harry as well. He didn’t look too impressed. “Well, I can’t just leave him here all alone. Winter is almost near as it is, and the coasts here get beyond just cold. We’re due for snowfall, aren’t we?”

Liam hummed in thought, “He could stay at my house for the time being. My father is going to the mainlands for a month, and my mother absolutely refused to let him travel alone. So she’s going with him. I just got the news this morning.”

“You would let him?” Harry asked, surprised by his best mate’s willingness to allow a stranger into his home. “Oh, thank you, Liam. Thank you so much!”

Louis watched as Harry threw himself into Liam’s arms, jealously seeping into each of his pores until the curly-haired-boy let go. Taking Louis’ hands then, the excitement in Harry’s pretty worldly green eyes brought a smile to his face. “I can go with you?”

“Yeah,” Harry nodded, “You’ll stay with Liam for a while, and when I can figure something out for us, hopefully by then we’ll be able to live together.”

“So…I can’t be with you now?” Louis asked, discouraged.

“Don’t worry, though,” Harry wanted to assure him, “I promise we will still see each other every day. I won’t abandoned you in this unfamiliar world.”

“Firstly, however,” Liam cut in, “He will need far better clothes than your shirt tied around his waist.”

“Right,” Harry agreed, meeting Louis’ gaze, “I’ll be right back, okay? I’m going to go with Liam to get you some clothes so other people won’t think anything strange when they see you. It’ll just take me a couple minutes, and then I’ll be here to take you to the village.” Harry looked over his shoulder then and Liam was already making his way back up the beach. Taking the moment of opportunity, he pressed his lips to Louis’ and took a step back. “Don’t go anywhere, okay? I won’t be long.”

_

“I don’t understand…” Niall said, he was hidden far away from the shore, behind the boulders stretching up out of the seawater. He almost couldn’t believe what he was looking at, but it was clear as day right in front of him. Louis was standing there on the beach as two boys left the brunette there. And while the humans who’d been so near to his former friend worried him as well, merely seeing Louis standing there on two feet was what ultimately shook him to the core.

Niall hadn’t seen the bright incident that caused Louis’ transformation, but he didn’t need to now that it was over. Where in the seven seas that his tail gone? What happened to cause it to disappear? This was impossible and he didn’t want to believe what he was looking at, but his eyes were the last things that had the ability to lie to him. Louis was…he was a human.

Was it that boy who’d done this to Louis? Was Harry not such an ordinary human after all, and he possessed some kind of charm that had the power to alter someone’s being? No, that was as ridiculous as it sounded. Humans didn’t have mystic abilities. Humans were nothing!

Or…

Had Louis wanted this? Someway, had Louis come across something that’d given him what he wanted all along? Could he have so easily abounded his true home by asking for it? Wrapped up in anger and worry, Niall slammed his fist down against the rock hard boulder. This couldn’t be happening! Louis didn’t belong there on land with humans! He belonged in the sea where he knew the world and it’s workings like attained instincts. On the surface with those other air-breathers, Niall could practically feel the storm ready to rage into Louis’ life, and it was all his fault. Harry’s fault. That damn human and his false hopes for love!

And Louis was stupid as well. How could be allowed something so trivial lure him into a world of danger? “You’re a fool for falling for him,” Niall growled, “But you will learn. Sooner or later, we always learn.”


	10. New Sensations

Louis was alone as he waited for Harry to return. It was lonely on the beach, but as he stared out into the vast world he once called home, he couldn’t deny the intense beauty of it from a foreign point of view. The waves that pulsed were precise, and to know nearly everything that went on below made him feel like a person of expertise. This new world he was in, however, on land with Harry, it was something he was going to have to grow into, work to understand the longer amount of time he spent above the surface.

Would he ever go back to the ocean?

Louis wasn’t sure, especially now that he had something so wonderful and enchanting in his life. He hadn’t known Harry for long, and that was a part of the details between them that was evident, but the feels the developed in his heart, no matter how quickly, they were nothing but true. During his time here in his world, he hoped to learn from Harry, build something special for the both of them, something so wondrous and fascinating, so much so that not a day would go by where he didn’t want to be a part of it. This new optimism implanted into him was just the beginning of a life he knew he would love more than anything.  
Louis looked down at his feet nestled into the sand, his toes wiggling as he grinned happily. This was him, these legs, these toes, every part of it belonged to him, and although they held no color, no greens or blues, these limbs were now a part of who he was. Louis stood then, fixing the long sleeves of Harry’s shirt tied around his waistline.

Uncoordinated as he was, he dug his foot into the sand a kicked out, sending a mist of tan crystals into the air as he laughed. Keeping his balance, he walked along the beach, excited when the tide rolled in over his toes. The water drained over his feet and just when he was about to take an extra step into the shallow coast, he froze when a single thought floated through his mind. If Harry couldn’t swim, did that mean he no longer knew how to either?

Stepping back from the water, the moment a wave of sentiment was about to flood over him, he turned when he heard Harry’s cheerful voice call to him. Glad to see the human boy again, Louis hurried for him. “I brought clothes,” Harry said, holding out a pair of black trousers and a tan shirt that buttoned in the front. He smiled as he was bombarded, Louis stepping on the front of his shoes to reach his lips easier.

The two melted into each other as their kiss deepened, Harry’s heart fluttered all throughout his chest as the affection Louis wasn’t afraid to show filled him with glee. This feeling of being wanted, of being so in love he would do anything to keep it, it was all so new to him and he never wanted to be without it. When Louis’ lips parted just a small ways, their tongues slid passed one another, the exclusive tastes they had mingling into one precious undergo. “I love you,” Louis spoke in a near whisper, “I love you, Harry, and you love me, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Harry said without wasting a second, “So much, Louis. I love you so much.”

Stepping back from atop the other boy’s shoes, Louis’ cheeks were pinch with a bashful hint of red, and the smile on his face matched that of the sun on a cloudless day. “What have you got there?” he asked, eyeing the articles of clothing.

Coming out of his bliss, Harry gathered himself and unfolded the trousers and shirt. “These belong to me,” he said, “So they may fit you a little loose, but it’s all I could find for the time being.”

Louis took the shirt into his hands, looking over it before Harry helped him into it, buttoning the front of it for him. When the shirt around his waist came undone, the trousers were pulled on and secured as well.

“How are they?” Harry asked.

He watched as Louis examined the borrowed outfit, and clearly there was a bit of discomfort in his blue eyes. The merman was not used to be covered up at all. Never could he imagine swimming through the ocean while trapped in such garments, but since Harry had taken the time to fetch them for him, Louis also guessed these patched clothes were something normal on the surface. After all, the curly-haired boy wore them every day. “They are nice,” he said, “Where will we go now?”

Taking Louis’ hand, Harry brought him further away from the shoreline and they walked up the beach together. “I don’t want to go back to the village just yet,” he said, “Let’s be together and walk for a bit. Is that okay with you?”

Louis nodded.

He was still getting used to walking upright on this new pair of legs. All his life, he’d grown accustom to using the muscles in his midriff and tail to push his way through the water, rotating his waistline in a manner that would help as well, but walking required less of a task to actually move. One foot at a time, that was all it took to keep up, but it did become a little stressful when they trekked up a rather steep incline to reach the top of a cliff peak. “I wanted to be with you here for a little longer,” Harry said. “Once we make it to the village, you and I will not be able to show such affections so openly. It is recognized as unnatural for two boys of our nature to be seen together this way.”

Looking down at their hands interlinked, Louis raised their locked fists and kissed the back of Harry’s hand. “But it is so lovely to feel this way. Why must love be shamed in this place?”

“I’ll never truly understand,” Harry answered, gloom coming over him. “But, it’ll be alright for now. I promise I will figure something out for us, a way to be together where no one would find us.”

“I would like that very much,” Louis provided a soft smile, one that encouraged the curly-haired boy. “If I can never be with the sea again, I would rather stay by your side for a thousand phases.” And Louis meant every word. As a merman in the sea, he’d already spent well over a hundred phases (years) living his long life amongst those he’d been brought into the world with, and he was more than ready to spend so much more of his millennia long life span with this human boy.

They sat down a meter away from the edge of the cliff, looking out over the glistening ocean far below and vast in size. It was quiet for a short time, just the sound of crushing waves striking the bottom of the cliff where it met the Tenerife. And while they were sat so close to one another, Harry couldn’t help but be afraid of having Louis, this person that he cared so much for, enter these lands he’d called home for so long now. Born and raised here on the island, the common lifestyle was all he knew. While majority of the jobs for men required fishing and wood crafting, Harry didn’t see there being much of anything to do for him alone to make a living for he and Louis.

His fears refused to step on a shipping boat, he couldn’t much build anything, but there had to be something he could look into. The last thing he wanted was for Louis to be regretfully stuck here on land with someone who couldn’t take care of him. But Harry would try anything.

“You are lost,” Louis said, getting the curly-haired boy’s attention, “Does the water enchant you, or is there something on you mind?”

To keep his thoughts of concern to himself, Harry said, “I’m alright, I was just caught up in thinking how glad I am to have you with me.”

This made Louis smiled brightly and he looked up at the sky, “I’ll never be ashamed of leaving the sea, Harry,” he said. “That is something I want you to know. All my life, I have thought the surface to be a wonderful place, and though you speak of it as being dangerous for certain reasons, if something as charming and beautiful as you can exist up here, then I am sure it all can’t be so bad. I was told once that true beauty can only come from true beauty, and if this place can create a wonder such as you…the surface must have some potentials.”

Harry couldn’t help but laugh a little, his cheeks warming in embarrassment. “To be called beautiful,” he tried to hide his smile by biting down on his lip, “It’s quite funny.”

“How so?”

Seeing the curious stare in Louis’ blue eyes, Harry huffed a laugh and lied back on the ground. His long brunette hair splayed out around his head, and the other boy leaned over him. “You laugh,” Louis said, “But if you could see what I see when I look at you, there is little that could be said against someone like you. When you saved my life before, there was fear I felt towards you, but your kindness to help me, to help me in a way no human ever had…it captivated me and all I wanted was to give you were nice things. As my kind learned, humans enjoy searching the waters and shores for wreckage, looking for shining treasures, so I gave you what I could carry from–.”

“So you do have treasure chest?”

“Yes,” Louis nodded, and then he noticed how Harry seemed to ponder on the thought of it. “It lies in the center of my home. No one really cares for it, so I keep it for myself, and my friend Teiron enjoys how the trinkets shine.”

“If only we could get our hands on the rest of it,” Harry sighed, “Then I could buy us a manor.”

“What is a ‘manor’?”

Harry spread his arms wide before him as Louis sat back now, “It is a large house, a home, usually taken by rich Lords and Ladies that already have gold and silver at their fingertips.”

“Gold and silver at their fingertips?” Louis raised and brow and looked down at his hands. “That doesn’t sound very nice at all.”

Again Harry laughed and shook his head, “It means they have no trouble being rich, able to live cleanly and without hunger, while people like me and my family have to work much harder to survive.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Welcome to the surface…”

Louis pouted his lip when seeing the shade of sorrow coming over Harry. “Don’t be sad,” he said, kissing the boy’s cheek and then his lips. “I don’t want you to be sad, Harry. Can’t you use the trinkets I once gave you to help us?”

The curly-haired boy gasped then, suddenly struck by the realization, “How could I be so forgetful!? Louis, you’re a genius.”

“A what?”

Harry burst into laughter and lunged for the blue-eyed boy. Their lips crashed together. Without a further word, their tongues slipped passed one another’s, overwhelmed and excited, even more so when Harry lied back after feeling as Louis lightly pushed him to lay down. Mindlessly, their hands wandered about, groping over each other’s bodies as further eagerness filled them evenly. Both of them were so new to being touched by such attentive hands, Harry’s sensitively making him feel like he was enveloped in all that was pleasurable. When Louis suddenly trailed his kisses along the other boy’s jaw and then his neck, he stopped and sat up on top of Harry when the breathiest or moans entered his ears. He was caught off guard by the motivating sound. Did he cause that?

Embarrassed from the slip up, Harry could feel his entire body on the verge of turning red, but while he was about to apologize for what he thought was over excitement, Louis stopped him from sitting up. _Did I do that,_ he wondered. Wanting to hear such a pleasant sound again, Louis lied back down atop the boy beneath him and kissed against Harry’s cheek, leading his lips on a slow journey to the boy’s neck.  
As his hands found the other boy’s, he pinned them down upon the grassy cliff, unable to help himself when he dragged his hips down in a motion that brought them closer. _This feels good,_ Louis thought to himself again, kissing the spot against Harry’s that caused him to moan deeply and hotly into his ear. These sounds and sensations, they were nothing like he’d ever felt before.

Trapped in Harry’s arms when they closed around him, Louis didn’t want to be let go from the embrace. They kissed for what felt like eternity, breath becoming heavy at moments, and the overly delicate impressions radiating from Louis’ groin suddenly made it unable for him to keep his voice down either. “Harry,” he whimpered into the other boy’s mouth, overcome when hands gripped down on his bottom.  
The whisper, however, brought Harry out of his bubble of pleasure and he swallowed hard. He felt mortified and needy all at the same time, desperate to be touched and kissed further and in other places than only his neck and lips, but he had to control himself in front of Louis. Just because he knew what it was like to be aroused, didn’t mean it wasn’t probably something new and strange to Louis. For now, at least, he had to contain himself no matter how easy a simple kiss brought out his human desperation.

“Louis,” he could feel himself trembling on the inside, “We should go, it’s getting late and it’ll be dark soon. I should – I should take you to Liam’s home before night.”

Was that really so important right now? Louis wanted to speak the question aloud, but seeing the uncertainly in Harry’s emerald eyes made him comply. Their moment together had made him feel something so new and unfamiliar, but while it was unacquainted to him, it was something he’d wanted to explore more with the other boy. In short, he wanted to be touched, but it seemed that would have to wait if Harry insisted upon it.


End file.
